{"id":8596,"date":"2021-01-06T05:11:32","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T10:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=8596"},"modified":"2021-01-06T05:11:32","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T10:11:32","slug":"ocean-county-legislators-decry-inmates-over-elderly-as-vaccine-reaches-n-j-jails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2021\/01\/ocean-county-legislators-decry-inmates-over-elderly-as-vaccine-reaches-n-j-jails\/","title":{"rendered":"Ocean County Legislators Decry ‘Inmates Over Elderly’ As Vaccine Reaches N.J. Jails"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jail<\/a>

Jail Cell (Credit: Jobs For Felons Hub\/ Flickr)<\/p><\/div>\n

Ocean County\u2019s legislative delegation has blasted a policy by the administration of Gov. Phil Murphy that considers inmates in prisons and jails across New Jersey to be a priority group to receive the coronavirus vaccine.<\/p>\n

The policy was vaguely referenced by Murphy in a recent press briefing over the state\u2019s pandemic response and was later confirmed by a state Health Department official. News of the inmates being prioritized before some senior citizens led to the local lawmakers to publicly decry the policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike other states that put their senior population first, our governor is choosing to vaccinate prison inmates before our most vulnerable citizens,\u201d stated Sen. James Holzapfel (R-Ocean). \u201cWe are seeing a substantial increase in cases at assisted living facilities and this will only get worse if the vaccine isn\u2019t distributed properly to those most in need. The senior population and health care providers in our district have been patiently waiting for the rollout of the vaccine and to see the governor alter the distribution and immunize inmates first is disgraceful.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Jersey lags behind many other states, including Florida, which is already vaccinating the general population of senior citizens. So far, New Jersey remains in the midst of its effort to vaccinate healthcare workers, though the prisoners and other populations are beginning to receive the vaccine.<\/p>\n

NJ.com first reported<\/a> that prisoners and correctional officers were both placed into the same risk category and, thus, vaccinated during the same phase.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that our prison population is a very vulnerable community,\u201d Gov. Phil Murphy said recently.<\/p>\n

The Bergen Record, days after Murphy\u2019s comment, reported<\/a> that inmates at South Woods State Prison\u00a0in Bridgeton with underlying conditions had been vaccinated. A spokesman for Murphy told the newspaper that prisons and their \u201ccongregate\u201d populations fall into \u201cmultiple categories\u201d of risk and, therefore, should be included as a priority after healthcare workers in category 1a.<\/p>\n

The explanation did not sit well with the legislators, whose county has the largest senior citizen population in the state and has been disproportionately affected by the virus. Ocean County also has the highest veteran population in New Jersey, highly driven by its seniors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that the Governor has prioritized inmates over the elderly is yet another example of how this Administration has failed our seniors,\u201d said Assemblyman Gregory P. McGuckin (R-Ocean).<\/p>\n

Assemblyman John Catalano (R-Ocean) said the administration is leaving long-term care facilities and senior citizens behind, despite their being at the highest risk of succumbing to Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe seems to care more about photo ops, fanfare and prisoners than overseeing the proper protocols to ensure that our most vulnerable residents are put first,\u201d Catalano said of Murphy.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ocean County\u2019s legislative delegation has blasted a policy by the administration of Gov. Phil Murphy that considers inmates in prisons and jails across New Jersey to be a priority group to receive the coronavirus vaccine. The policy was vaguely referenced by Murphy in a recent press briefing over the state\u2019s pandemic response and was later […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,15,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-ocean-county","category-police-fire-courts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/27680527941_5b6af23f51_o.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-2eE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}