Coronavirus pandemic spreads across prisons worldwide

Inmates are seen on the roof of the Devoto prison with a banner that reads "We refuse to die on jail" during a riot demanding health measures against the spread of the coronavirus in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Criminal-justice advocates have warned for months that jails and prison are potential hothouses for infection. Inmates live in close quarters, share bathrooms and dining halls, and often have limited access to health care.

Inmates exercise in the yard at the Marion Correctional Institution where there have been positive cases of the coronavirus in Marion, Ohio.

As the virus spread, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction began mass testing. They started with the Marion Correctional Institution, which houses 2,500 prisoners in north central Ohio, many of them older with pre-existing health conditions.

After testing 2,300 inmates for the coronavirus, they were shocked. Of the 2,028 who tested positive, close to 95 per cent had no symptoms 

Demonstrators stage a motorized protest outside the Correctional Treatment Facility against sanitary conditions inside prisons in Washington, United States

A woman (left) holds a sign as family and people concerned about the safety and health of prison inmates protest outside Olympia, United States.

A fire is seen during a riot demanding health measures against the spread of the coronavirus at the prison (right).

Inmates cut cloth to manufacture preventive masks for themselves at a sewing machine workshop inside a jail in Santiago, Chile.

Inmates are seen on the roof of the San Vittore Prison during a revolt after family visits were suspended due to fears over coronavirus contagion, in Milan, Italy.

Indonesian Red Cross Society personnel sprays disinfection at a jail in Depok, near Jakarta, Indonesia.

A prison guard speaks with medical workers at a secure mobile medical unit set up at the Abbotsford Regional Hospital to treat prisoners infected with the coronavirus from the Mission Institution correctional centre, in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada.