Jail Vaccine Incentive Payments Worked

Milwaukee County Jail and Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Since 2021, Milwaukee County has been offering people in custody at the jail and the Community Reintegration Center (CRC) $50 to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. And, apparently, it works.

A joint report produced at the end of January by the Milwaukee County Sheriff‘s Office and CRC Superintendent Chantell Jewell recommends that the county continue to fund the $50 vaccine incentive in 2023 “as it has been the most impactful of incentives presented to residents and occupants.”

The program offers people in the county’s custody a $50 payment to their trust account for each dose they receive: first, second and booster. This money can be used to make phone calls or purchase food from the commissary. More than 2,000 doses have been administered in the county’s detention facilities. Though, with a constantly fluctuating population, the vaccination rate remains well below that of Milwaukee County or the state.

As of Jan. 15, according to the report, the vaccination rate in the CRC was 30%, and 16% in the jail. “Due to the transient nature of our detainee populations, and vaccinated detainees being sent to other facilities, it is extremely challenging to keep this percentage high, although we can continue to educate and vaccinate all willing CRC and County Jail occupants,” the report said.

The county jail typically detains people who are awaiting trial or who have been recently arrested. The CRC is a post-conviction detention facility, but the people incarcerated there are serving sentences of one year or less.

Still, both facilities report “upward spikes in vaccination rates” when the incentive payment program has been funded. “For example, when the initial funding source for this incentive program was exhausted on May 31, 2022, for the CRC, vaccinations rates fell to 30% from 40% the previous week,” the report notes.

At the CRC, $92,450 in incentive payments have led to 885 first doses, 598-second doses and 366 booster shots. At the jail, $46,350 in payments have led to 403 first doses, 236-second doses and 288 boosters.

The sheriff’s office was initially allocated $121,000 for the incentive program. After transferring $45,000 to the CRC, it has $29,650 left for the program as of the report from Jan. 26. The CRC, which received a recent $78,000 allocation of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, had just over $74,000 remaining.

Read the full report here.