Ohio inmate alleges COVID-19 outbreak in prison, lack of testing, threats of retaliation

An Ohio inmate is raising the alarm about a potential outbreak of COVID-19 in one of the state’s prisons, though official confirmation of the outbreak is impossible to secure given a near-total lack of coronavirus testing for the state’s nearly 49,000 inmates. Piet van Lier, a researcher with Policy Matters Ohio, said: “I don’t think it takes an expert to understand that if all a sudden you have lots of cases coming out of the prisons, it’s going to overwhelm the medical centers and hospitals, as well.”The inmate is being housed at Pickaway Correctional Institute (PCI) and said he and many in his unit have been experiencing coronavirus symptoms for over a week. Despite chest pains and difficulty breathing, as well as a cough, the inmate was denied testing in the prison’s medical bay because he didn’t have an “outrageous fever.” Fox News is withholding the identity of the inmate to protect him against potential retaliation. The inmate, in his 30s and who is incarcerated for the first time on non-violent drug offenses, said he and others have been threatened by corrections officers if they spoke about their symptoms and the lack of testing. He made his allegations in emails to a family member, who made them available to Fox News. “Nobody knows this is happening to us. People are passing out in my unit everyday. This Oasis program is the reason all of this is going on. The counselors NEVER STOPPED COMING TO WORK.”— Ohio inmate in emails shared with Fox News.“Nobody knows this is happening to us,” the inmate said. “People are passing out in my unit everyday. This Oasis program is the reason all of this is going on. The counselors NEVER STOPPED COMING TO WORK.” An outbreak at Pickaway Correctional Institution, which houses over 2,000 inmates, could flood Franklin Medical Center, the prison system’s designated hospital, with patients. Currently, there are six patients under quarantine at the hospital, according to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) data.Franklin Medical Center is a health care facility that offers inmates a myriad of resources, including vocational training, GED classes and Alcoholics Anonymous. An inmate handbook for the facility from 2014 states that medical personnel are always available. The handbook also states that the facility can provide medication and emergency care. It did not mention the facility’s urgent or intensive care capabilities.Employees in Ohio’s prison system are represented by the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (OCSEA). Representatives for the OCSEA did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News.The OASIS program is an addiction rehabilitation program conducted at PCI that aims to help inmates “through a therapeutic structure that includes communal meetings, encounter groups, education, organized recreation, and the like,” according to a description on an Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction website.The program is run by the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) and is meant to provide inmates with a pathway to sobriety and reduced recidivism. According to the prisoner’s emails, outside counselors have been coming into the prison, despite Gov. Mike DeWine’s mandate that schools stop in-person meetings.”In terms of recovery services offered within Ohio prisons, the only programs that have shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic as of today are the ones at Marion Correctional Institution.” — Eric Wandersleben, spokesperson for Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services.Eric Wandersleben, a spokesperson for OhioMHAS, said that substance abuse programs in Ohio prisons have continued with “modified conditions which take into consideration” guidance on social distancing and limits on group size.He said there are no plans to discontinue in-person sessions during the outbreak, though the OhioMHAS and DRC have “adopted staff and visitor screening protocols.””In terms of recovery services offered within Ohio prisons, the only programs that have shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic as of today are the ones at Marion Correctional Institution,” Wandersleben said in an email to Fox News.“He was complaining last week about being sick. … He didn’t want to say anything because they would throw him in the hole and call it quarantine.”— Ohio inmate’s mother to Fox News.“He was complaining last week about being sick,” the inmate’s family member told Fox News. “I guess he thought he might have a cold or something, but he didn’t want to say anything because they would throw him in the hole and call it quarantine.“I didn’t understand the governor closing colleges and schools across Ohio, but prisoners are still required to go to classes,” she continued.The allegations of a coronavirus outbreak come at the same time DeWine announced a modest proposal to release 38 select prisoners, 23 of whom are pregnant women or women who recently gave birth in prison. The other 15 are prisoners who are over the age of 60 and are within 60 days of release. “We are sending, today, letters to judges around the state in suggesting that they may want to look at these prisoners, 38 separate prisoners, who they might consider letting out early,” DeWine said. “It will help some individuals, but it doesn’t even begin to address the issue at the scale of what’s needed.” — Piet van Lier, researcher at Policy Matters Ohio, on Gov. DeWine’s proposed releases.Gov. DeWine’s list would be sent to the judges who sentenced the individuals. He said it was his intention to get community input before releasing prisoners. His office declined to comment or respond to a detailed list of questions when contacted by Fox News.The 38 prisoners suggested for potential release represents a fraction of what some in Ohio say is needed to protect the state’s 48,991 inmates. “It will help some individuals, but it doesn’t even begin to address the issue at the scale of what’s needed,” van Lier said. “… They’re taking an individual review approach and that’s not going to get Ohio where it needs to be.” The flip side of the governor’s efforts to flatten the coronavirus curve across the state is the lack of testing available to health care workers. Only 30 inmates in Ohio have been tested for COVID-19. Two prisons have been placed under quarantine, Marion Correctional Institution (MCI) and Toledo Correctional Institution (TCI). At Marion, which Fox News previously reported on, at least one individual has tested positive for COVID-19. There are 2,535 prisoners at MCI and 929 at TCI. At Pickaway, where one inmate is alleging a COVID-19 outbreak, there are 2,065 inmates. No testing has been reported by the state at PCI. To date, ODRC has tested only 30 inmates.In response to a detailed list of questions, JoEllen Smith, a spokesperson for the ODRC, sent Fox News a list of actions they’ve taken to mitigate the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak in the prison system. Included in the list is an order for “all prisons with dormitory-style housing to implement ‘head to toe’ sleeping arrangements to maximize social distancing in a correctional environment.””Facilities have been instructed to continue recovery services programming when able in groups less than 10 and with social distancing or 1:1 with social distancing,” Smith wrote in the email.”Ohio doesn’t have just one problem, it has a couple dozen problems.” — Gary Daniels, lobbyist at ACLU-Ohio, on Ohio’s prison overpopulation.“We know we don’t have enough tests for people behind bars,” said Gary Daniels, a lobbyist for ACLU-Ohio. “That is precisely why the ACLU of Ohio and many other organizations are advocating for quick and smart decarceration of not only our prison system but our individual prisons.“Ohio doesn’t have just one problem, it has a couple dozen problems,” Daniels continued. The prison system in Ohio has been chronically overpopulated for years, Daniels said. In a letter to the governor, his organization said that it’s critical DeWine recognizes that the prison system is operating at about 10,000 people above capacity. Such a crisis of space, in a time of recommended physical distancing, makes a 10,000 person reduction “a potential floor, but not a ceiling.”Daniels said a logical step for the governor to take would be to free people who are jailed for technical violations of post-release conditions, a group that makes up over 22 percent of people entering Ohio prisons. ““They are still cramming tons of inmates in small closed in rooms up here for meetings that mean nothing. This is how it’s spreading so quickly up here. You gotta get in touch with somebody to let them know what’s going on in here. These people have no voice.”— Ohio inmate in emails shared with Fox News.“We’re talking about thousands of people, not 38 possible people,” Daniels said. “Ohio is ten thousand people above capacity in its current prison system. That’s a crisis in non-COVID-19 times that needs to be addressed.”The crisis of COVID-19 in Ohio’s prisons is just beginning. With cramped conditions, two facilities under quarantine and at least one staffer and one prisoner testing positive for the deadly virus, a COVID-19 outbreak could be especially destructive to Ohio’s incarcerated population. “They are still cramming tons of inmates in small closed in rooms up here for meetings that mean nothing,” emails from the PCI inmate read. “This is how it’s spreading so quickly up here. You gotta get in touch with somebody to let them know what’s going on in here. These people have no voice.”Ohio’s prison population is in a precarious position, with two prisons under quarantine, a third prison facing allegations of a COVID-19 outbreak, and a severe lack of testing across the state. A potential outbreak of the deadly virus in Ohio prisons could easily overwhelm the Franklin Medical Center and spill over into local hospitals.“It doesn’t take much to understand that a real outbreak could overwhelm the hospitals pretty quickly,” van Lier said.
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