Prisons have been ravaged by the virus. At least 343,000 people in state and federal facilities around the country have tested positive as of early January, according to reporting by The Marshall Project and The Associated Press. The prison infection rate is more than four times as high as among people on the outside, nationally. In some states, it’s more than 10 times as high.

Even as prisons have proved hotspots of COVID-19, the pandemic has posed new challenges for the people who leave them—and the communities they re-enter. Even as some states have accelerated the release of prisoners to stem contagion, relatively few systematically test or quarantine people before they leave. In turn, reentry facilities and probation and parole systems across the country are scrambling, often with few resources or safety protocols, to prevent further spread of the coronavirus.

The Marshall Project surveyed all 50 state departments of corrections and the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) about their prerelease protocols. Out of the 31 prison systems that responded, 17 states plus the BOP said they’re testing all prisoners before they get out. Twelve states and the BOP said they routinely quarantine people prior to release, and 12 states said they delay the release of parolees who test positive. Just 13 states plus the BOP said they were coordinating discharges with local Departments of Health. And only three states—California, Idaho and North Carolina—said they are providing hotel rooms where people who are positive on release can safely quarantine in the community.

Reentry providers we interviewed told us that the risks of further contagion are high because prisoners are going home to family or to halfway houses and transitional housing units where they share rooms with other formerly incarcerated people. Others may travel hundreds of miles on public transportation to get home.

Read the full article about COVID-19 in prisons by Nicole Lewis and Beth Schwartzapfel at The Marshall Project.