In America people first go to their county jail before trial. Then after sometimes a lengthy stay they are either convicted and transported to a state prison, convicted and remain in county or acquitted and released. As for visits it depends on the policy. Some allow for in person visits with contact, some allow for visits only behind glass and some allow for conjugal visits. I'm blessed to not know personally anyone in the "system" so my knowledge is based solely on what I've seen on the show.In Russia, I have not heard of any cases of covid among prisoners. True, prisons here are located quite separately, and even the guards rarely leave these places. Perhaps it was something like group "self-isolation", when everyone sits inside a fenced-in building, closed off from the world, does not go anywhere and does not communicate with anyone in the outside world. I remember when I was studying to be the head of the gas department of the boiler room a long time ago, there was a colony (prison) employee in our group. Well, there was a rather comical situation - there were large gas boilers in the prison (used for heating and for producing hot water for washing), these boilers were in good condition, but very old, still Soviet-made. And according to the new law, it was impossible to use such boilers, because they did not have modern protective automation and an electric ignition system (they were lit the old-fashioned way, like in the 30s of the last century, with a burning piece of newspaper, opening the gas valve). Well, the gas service employees were very angry with this prison worker, because using such boilers was already prohibited by law. But they could not enter the prison territory and impose sanctions, because the prison is a restricted area where no one can come except for the guards and staff. And this story went on for several years, gas was supplied to the prison for the boilers, but it was impossible to turn them off, because to do this you had to go in and conduct an inspection. The inspectors could not go in there.
In general, what kind of covid is there - if even a state gas service inspector cannot visit gas boilers for inspection. There is no need to even talk about the rest, ordinary people (not inspectors). The story with these boilers lasted for several years, until they were finally replaced with modern ones. Only after that did the prison open the doors and let in the inspectors, who, having knocked on locked doors for years, became very angry and irritated.
As for prisoners - in general, it takes a very long time to get to prison here, first the criminals are kept for a long time in a kind of "preliminary" prison, while all sorts of prosecutorial proceedings and trials are carried out, and only after several months, or even a whole year. the prisoners go to the main prison (naturally, the time they spent in the "preliminary" is counted towards their sentence. There was even a case when one prisoner, who received a year in prison, never made it to the main prison, and was released from the "preliminary", the so-called "SIZO". Moreover, some prisoners did not go to prison at all - if there was no irrefutable evidence before the trial. They were released without receiving a prison term. At the same time, release on bail does not exist in Russia, if a person is suspected of a crime, then he will either be locked up in a "preliminary" prison, or forced to sign a paper according to which he has no right to leave the city where he lives (it all depends on the severity and evidence of the crime). Accordingly, when criminals had covid - they never made it to prison. They either got severe symptoms of the disease, and went not to prison, but to the hospital, or recovered - and went to prison without covid. This is the system here.
In general, as I understand it, in Russia, COVID simply did not reach the main prisons, due to their isolation.
The only thing I didn't understand in this story was what happened with visits to prisoners by their relatives. Probably, during the covid in the country, visits were simply prohibited.
