Special Report: COVID-19 Pandemic Poses Dire Threat to NC Prisons and Jails

_[Editor’s note: This is the first of a special, three-part series examining the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to jails, prisons and other detention facilities. The reports will highlight stories about incarcerated individuals, staff_ members who are charged with caring for them and the Cooper administration’s response to calls for change before a potential outbreak.]

Criminal justice advocates and family members of incarcerated individuals have been warning state and county officials for weeks about the potential for COVID-19 to ravage the populations of jails, prisons and other…