Over 2600 inmates and almost 3000 staff members of prisons and jails nationwide have now contracted covert 19 according to researchers at U.

C L.

A.

The concern is those working inside these facilities could spread it on the outside.

A B C's Alex Perez has this look at the Corona virus from behind bars, while the outside world urges residents to stay home and practice social distancing wth e inside world of overpopulated prison systems across the country, struggling to stem the spread of covert 19 among inmates and staff at Chicago's Cook County Jail, more than 300 inmates have been diagnosed with Cove in 19.

At least three have already died.

Inmates posting this sign on a cell help we matter to using contraband cellphones.

Inmates pleading for help in Alabama for old crowded for senator purposes at attention, prison inmates smashed offices and set fires, taking over an entire cellblock for hours until staff used a tear gas.

The state now investigating.

And in Louisiana, the A c L u has filed a lawsuit for the release of hundreds of vulnerable prisoners after at least six died there.

Marianne Lenka worries about her fiance, Daniel Rodriguez.

He served six years of his eight year sentence in Connecticut.

He has Parul him up no matter what, and I've reached out to the governor.

I've reached out to the commissioner of Corrections her biggest fear that he could be infected.

I believe there's four levels.

He's on the third level, one being the lowest.

So our conditions that he has already gives him optation in legal filings, responding to an A c L U lawsuit to state officials wrote that Rodriguez is quote not medically eligible for release despite a heart condition.

The outbreak behind bars, critics say, further complicated by unsanitary conditions, restricted access to soap and water, and the fact that social distancing and prisons and jails is often impossible.

God is too small.

It is way, way too small.

Here at Cook County and prisons and jails across the country, they have already released thousands of low level, nonviolent inmates to help ease overcrowding.

They're also now separating inmates, quarantining those that test positive and show symptoms, hoping to slow down the spread of the virus inside and outside.

Alex Perez, ABC News Chicago Hi everyone, George Stephanopoulos Here.

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