A federal prison in Louisiana that experienced a coronavirus outbreak did not isolate inmates infected with the virus, according to the Justice Department’s inspector general.
A new report published on Tuesday revealed that the Federal Correctional Complex in Oakdale, Louisiana, violated federal health guidance and left inmates who contracted the virus in their housing units for close to a week without isolating them from the rest of the prison population, according to the Associated Press.
To date, more than 180,000 incarcerated individuals have tested positive for COVID-19, and 140 have died, including eight at the Oakdale prison, according to data compiled by the Marshall Project and the Associated Press. Prisons are considered a hotbed for an epidemic to spread, given the number of prisoners and tight quarters.
“Some inmates who had tested positive were left in their housing units for up to six days without being isolated,” the report said.
Despite top prison officials claiming they had a surplus of protective equipment for the staff, lower-level employees told the inspector general’s office that they didn’t have enough. One staff member said he didn’t have a surgical mask when he was in close contact with COVID-19-positive inmates, while another said he didn’t wear an N95 mask while escorting ill inmates to a nearby hospital “because his supervisor told him that he did not need to wear one,” according to the report.
Justin Long, a spokesman for the Office of Public Affairs, told the Washington Examiner after this story’s initial publication, “The BOP self-identified and remedied areas where mitigation strategies were not consistently applied or where improvements in mitigation strategies or the implementation of them could be made, including changes in personnel where appropriate. These remediations essentially mirrored areas identified by the IG.”
The inspector’s general’s office concluded that some staff members “did not understand the necessity” of wearing proper protection when in close proximity to someone who tested positive.
This week, the United States reached more than 11 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. Nearly 250,000 people have died from the virus. Several states and major cities have enacted more coronavirus restrictions to combat spikes in cases across the country.
The Federal Correctional Complex in Oakdale did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
