At least 100,000 people in prisons and jails across the country have contracted the coronavirus., according to data compiled by the New York Times. About 800 inmates and staff have died.
Texas is now home to the three worst federal prison outbreaks in the country., according to the Bureau of Prisons. Among the three facilities, Seagoville FCI, FMC Carswell and Beaumont Low FCI, there are more than 2,100 cases of coronavirus and some more than a dozen recoveries.
COVID-19 cases at Carswell, a federal medical prison in Fort Worth, have exploded in recent days, going from 200 positive cases on Sunday to more than 500 today. At least three women have died from complications with COVID-19. Carswell is the only medical center for incarcerated women in the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
One of the inmates who contracted the virus at Carswell is the reality winner of the NSA, who says prison guards tease sick inmates and allow a COVID positive patient to spread the virus to a unit where patients live. dialysis and chemotherapy. “The officer did her best to come to my room and say, ‘I just wanted to congratulate you on your positive results,'” Winner wrote in an email sent early Monday to her sister Brittany, who obtained The Guardian.
Carswell is the second in Seagoville in Dallas County, as the federal prison with the worst outbreak. Of approximately 1,800 inmates, 1,222 have contracted COVID-19. According to a local NBC affiliate, the BOP claims that all institutions are equipped with tents and special areas for quarantined isolation, however Seagoville is not using such tents.
Outside Houston, the third largest outbreak within federal jails is in Beaumont with 477 confirmed cases. Relatives and loved ones of those behind bars in Beaumont plan to protest against prison conditions next Sunday outside the facility.
At least 12,071 total cases of coronavirus have been reported among inmates in Texas, according to data compiled by The Marshall Project. The United States Bureau of Prisons remains in the eighth phase of its coronavirus action plan, which means that all social visits and transfers, with limited exceptions, at all federal correctional facilities are suspended.
Inmates inside the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman have resorted to burning and self-harm to receive help for injured or sick men, according to experts who investigated the conditions as reported by the Clarion Ledger. Parchman, a maximum security prison with a legacy rooted in slavery, is involved in a series of lawsuits filed by inmates in the facility state, including spoiled or poorly cooked food, moldy housing units and without air conditioning and non-potable water. that’s “brown and smelly”.
Also, according to the Clarion ledger:
“At least one medical expert believes that staff members sometimes falsely document that a patient has refused medical treatment. Sometimes the denial forms only have the signature of a correctional officer, in other cases, the patient’s signature does not match her signature on other forms. “
What started as warnings of unsafe and unhealthy conditions in an Indiana women’s prison now it has turned into cries for help. According to the Indianapolis Star, the women in the prison “became severely dehydrated, unconscious, or attacked because the prison cells reach temperatures 10 to 20 degrees higher than outside.” A prison employee called it a “time bomb”.
“The temperature doesn’t break in the cool of the night, but the brick cells act like insulated hot ovens,” an anonymous inmate at the Indiana Women’s Prison wrote in a letter.
I am afraid of dying from a fire because of the way the air vents open in the summer, “wrote another inmate,” no one cares here about the heat in the cells or the fire hazard of the cells that are closed. “
Outbreaks of coronavirus in Detroit jails infected at least 83 inmates and 208 employeesThey also killed two doctors who took care of them. According to The Guardian, “The failures in the Detroit County Jails echo those of the neighboring Oakland County Jail and the US, including facilities in Miami; the famous Angolan prison in Louisiana; and California’s San Quentin prison, where 2,000 inmates have coronaviruses and 10 have died. “
In the past two weeks, COVID-19 has spread like wildfire in a Kentucky prison, killing three and infecting at least 168 inmates and 14 employees. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports: “The prison, which is primarily intended to keep medically vulnerable prisoners, is the third Kentucky state prison to have a major COVID-19 outbreak this year, after the Green River Correctional Complex in County Muhlenberg and the Kentucky Correctional Institution for women in Shelby County.
Every prison in South Carolina has reported cases of coronavirus after a Ridgeland Correctional staff member tested positive yesterday. So far, no inmate in prison has tested positive for COVID-19. According to a press release from the South Carolina Department of Corrections, there are currently 484 inmates with active cases of coronavirus.
In Montgomery County, AL, the county jail system is experiencing a staff shortage. In Alabama, 14 of the 26 state correction facilities have reported coronavirus cases for a total of 164 inmate infections, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections. However, the state has proven only 651 of the approximately 22,000 incarcerated.
From Hartford Courant of Connecticut, “inmates who sued the state, claiming that their confinement leaves them particularly vulnerable to coronavirus infection, they have settled after dropping a key demand: a substantial release of prisoners to reduce the prison population. “
