Prisoner inoculation first not right

I WAS SHOCKED to hear ... that correctional facilities are already giving the COVID-19 vaccine to prison inmates and personnel. I double-checked this on the Department of Corrections website. Sure enough, the website says it “is inoculating staff and incarcerated individuals under the guidance of the New Mexico Department of Health’s current vaccine implementation phase (1A).”

The Corrections website then refers the reader to the Department of Health website. Phase 1A includes congregate care facilities. In extremely fine print, correctional facilities are included within the congregate care category. A cynic would conclude that the Department of Health is trying to hide the correctional facility inoculations. The governors of both Colorado and California had to back off prioritizing prisoners over the ill and elderly when their citizens protested. Governor (Michelle Lujan) Grisham wants to avoid the protests by concealing her actions in bureaucratese.

I agree that prisoners should come before ordinary healthy people, precisely because they live in close quarters where the virus is easily spread. But I don’t agree that they should come before the elderly or ill. As it stands now, prisoners come before my 92-year-old mother who also has hypertension, one friend with cancer and another with a kidney transplant. Really? Prisoners come before pregnant women and sick babies, people with breathing difficulties, heart and stroke patients and anyone else who is sick. Does this seem right? Not to me.

If you want to protect your friends and relatives who are elderly or especially vulnerable to COVID-19, call the governor and tell her to reconsider her priorities.

KATIE LONGFIELD Santa Fe