A new report from the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) shows a significant number of coronavirus cases have been found in U.S. federal prisons. According to the Associated Press, more than 70% of the incarcerated individuals tested for COVID-19 have the virus.
Out of 2,700 tests given in the federal prison system, almost 2,000 came back positive, the bureau revealed. About 300 BOP staffers have also tested positive for COVID-19, according to USA Today. With the numbers adding up, the families of the incarcerated individuals are becoming increasingly worried about their loved ones.
The family of Michael Fleming, who was serving a 20-year sentence, is especially devastated after the 59-year-old died in prison. Fleming's son, who is also named Michael Fleming, said he didn't get to say goodbye to his father before he died at FCI Terminal Island in Los Angeles on April 19, the AP reported.
Fleming said his family didn't know about his father’s illness until he died and a prison chaplain asked if the body should be cremated.
“They just left us all in the dark,” Fleming told the AP. “We had to find out from the news what the actual cause of death was. It was kind of screwed up.”
According to BOP policy, the agency is required to promptly notify the family of incarcerated individuals who have serious illnesses. The agency confirmed that Fleming's family wasn’t initially notified about the illness. However, a spokesperson added that the bureau has “discretion when making notifications.”
Thirty-one incarcerated individuals have died from the coronavirus at federal prisons since late March and about 600 have recovered, the AP reported. Prison officials said they are making the facilities safer by limiting movement, setting up tents to increase bed space, isolating sick individuals and considering some for home confinement.
“We are doing the right things to manage our population and to keep them as safe as possible at this time when we can’t provide that assurance to our average American free public that everyone is safe and secure right now with this pandemic,” said Kathy Hawk Sawyer, a BOP senior adviser.
Dr. Jeffrey Allen, the bureau’s medical director, said the Justice Department has received 20 ventilators and more than 5,000 test kits for hospitals housing federal prisoners.
“A lot is yet unknown about how to limit its transmission in a correctional environment, and that’s why we’re collaborating with the CDC to try to identify that sort of data that can inform our management strategies going forward,” he said.
At the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, Guillermo Zegarra-Martinez told his attorney in an email that he was shaking with a fever and experiencing pain throughout his body, but he never received a test.
According to USA Today, about 70% of the federal prison system's coronavirus cases are found in three facilities in California, Texas and North Carolina. The Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution has the highest of the three, with 570 cases, USA Today reported.
The BOP stated that it has increased the number of inmates who are being moved to home confinement.
"Given the surge in positive cases at select sites and in response to the Attorney General Barr's directives, the BOP began immediately reviewing all inmates who have COVID-19 risk factors, as described by the CDC, to determine which inmates are suitable for home confinement," the agency stated on its website. "Since the release of the Attorney General's original memo to the BOP on March 26, 2020 instructing us to prioritize home confinement as an appropriate response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the BOP has placed an additional 1,959 inmates on home confinement; an increase of 68.7 percent."
