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With COVID-19, What Are the Differences Between a Cruise Ship and a Prison?

It is more than no shuffleboard.

There are many similarities to people being stuck on a cruise ship and those people "stuck" in prison. I suppose for some candidates, there is room service in a prison, with meals being delivered.

The challenge for prisons is many times the physical health of the people incarcerated, along with close living and dinning conditions. The same goes for city and county jails. Those jailed may have many underlying conditions that will jeopardize their health in the ongoing pandemic

Think about the personal protective equipment that jailers might need to have for working in close proximity with their inmates. 

There may be many more similarities than there are differences. A captured population with no place to go. 

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.