JACKSON, Miss — State officials say Mississippi has given COVID-19 shots to thousands of state prisoners in its ongoing mass vaccination effort behind bars.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections says the effort began with the state's most populated prison — Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl.
By Friday, officials say they'd completed vaccinating nearly all of the 3,017 inmates there.
The agency says inmates at Mississippi State Prison at Parchman will be vaccinated this week; and those at South Mississippi Correctional the following week.
Officials say some states have had as many as 40% of inmates refuse the vaccine, but Mississippi has only experienced about 1% refusing it.
