Event

Abstract: Since the beginning of the pandemic, jails have been among the largest clusters of COVID-19 infections in the country. While the United States cages two million people in prisons, nearly ten million Americans pass through jails each year. Still, jails are often conflated with prisons, and remain relatively understudied in public health research on incarceration. In this talk she will summarize her senior thesis, discuss the association between lagged weekly excess mortality and levels of jail crowding in US states during the COVID-19 pandemic. I show that jail crowding is strongly positively associated with increased excess mortality not just inside of jails, but in states at large. Sylvie presents further developments to her research since completing her Senior Thesis. Lastly, she presents the case for ambitious abolitionism both in the academy and in public policy.

Sylvie Tuder is a senior in the Sociology Department here at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on the ways that racism and social control pattern population health in the United States. This fall, she will pursue a PhD in Sociology at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill.