Officials with the Oregon Department of Corrections announced that a resident died in a Pendleton jail on Wednesday after contracting COVID-19, the second such death on the same day.
The resident, who was not identified, was between 50 and 60 years old and died at a hospital outside the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, where he was being held in jail, officials said. His exact cause of death would be determined by the medical examiner.
The death is the fifth among prisoners in Oregon who have tested positive for COVID-19. The first death in an Oregon prison came in late May, but there were no more deaths until August 13th. Four of the five dead have just arrived in the last two weeks.
Wednesday’s deaths also mark the second and third in Pendleton prison in the last seven days.
Among the roughly 14,000 inmates in Oregon, there have been at least 636 cases of coronavirus. At least 185 prison staff have tested positive for the virus, according to online records.
The other prisoner who died from prison to die Wednesday was a man between the ages of 65 and 75, officials said. Neither man was identified.
Bobbin Singh, executive director of the Oregon Justice Resource Center, said the state “is failing its imprisoned residents and their loved ones.”
“There were choices available that prevented the five deaths we have now seen from incarcerated Oregonians who had COVID when they died,” Singh said in a statement. “Community members, public health experts and civil rights advocates have been pushing for a different approach for months now, but the state chose to ignore these votes.”
Representatives of the Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to questions about the march in the dead.
Under normal circumstances, the state makes the name, county of conviction, length of sentence and date of death known to people who die in custody, but officials have changed that practice for inmates who contract the virus.
“To balance the desire for transparency with our legal obligation to protect personal health information, we have changed the process of (inmate) death as one star who tested positive for COVID,” the agency said in a statement.
– Kale Williams; [email protected]; 503-294-4048; @sfkale
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