Giving Compass' Take:

• Joseph Neff reports that like prisons, halfway houses present a social distancing challenge. Attention is needed to prevent the spread of coronavirus among residents. 

• What role can funders play in ensuring the safety of residents in halfway houses and other places where social distancing is a challenge? 

• Read about social distancing in prisons.

The grainy photo shows a social distancing nightmare in a California halfway house: 11 men lining up for a meal in a crowded room, serving themselves cafeteria style despite the coronavirus pandemic. Only two men appear to be wearing masks, but not the elderly man in the wheelchair at the center of the image.

That photo, and others taken by residents, were filed as part of a federal lawsuit alleging that unsanitary and crowded conditions at Orion House in Van Nuys, near Los Angeles, pose a grave threat to residents, staff and the broader community.

An expert described the conditions as alarming when he reviewed the photographs: few masks, men huddled together, broken sinks and a backed up toilet.

“It looks as if almost no protections are in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” said Dr. Gavin Yamey, a professor of global health at Duke University. “These men are not being given the protections they deserve to prevent getting infected.”

Prisons and jails, with close quarters where it’s nearly impossible to maintain social distance, have become hot spots for the virus. But halfway houses, the transitional facilities in cities across the country where many federal prisoners finish their sentence, have received less attention and may pose as much of a risk, health experts warn.

Read the full article about halfway house risks by Joseph Neff at The Marshall Project.