SALEM, Ore. — The Oregon Department of Corrections received 400 COVID-19 vaccinations Monday, and is hoping to vaccinate a "small number" of adults in custody in the coming days.
According to a press release from the DOC, the first round of vaccines will mostly be distributed to medical providers, transport employees and staff members working on COVID-19 units. The rest, a "small number," according to the release, will be given to adults in custody whose work assignments involve COVID-19-positive units.
According to DOC staff, all inmates will eventually be offered the vaccine. It will not be mandatory, and the DOC is set to receive another round of vaccines next week.
There are more than 13,000 inmates across the state's 14 institutions. Twenty-one inmates have died of COVID-19 since March, and there have been more than 2,200 positive cases among adults in custody in Oregon.
Additionally, 560 staff members have tested positive as well.
Oregon prisons have been the sites of some of the state's largest workplace outbreaks during the pandemic, as social distancing and COVID protocols proved to be extremely difficult to follow.
During the summer, Gov. Brown commuted the sentences of nearly 60 inmates.
The governor announced a similar plan for early release in December 2020, and according to OPB reports, this included 130 inmates with six months or fewer left on their sentences.
According to the governor's office, those getting early release couldn't be serving a sentence for a person-involved crime, have to have a record of good conduct for 12 months and must have housing plans upon their release.
As of Dec. 17, 2020, 247 adults in custody have been released early.
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