With COVID-19 striking 10% of inmates, NC will test all staff at three state prisons
North Carolina will test all employees at three prisons for COVID-19 in a pilot project that they hope will stem the spread of the virus, which has infected about 10% of state prison inmates.
The testing, which began Monday, will be conducted at Scotland Correctional Institution in Lauringburg, the Dan River Work Farm, northeast of Greensboro, and the Greene Correctional Institution, about 80 miles east of Raleigh. All three prisons have COVID-19 outbreaks.
The worst of those outbreaks is at Scotland Correctional, where more than 400 inmates have tested positive and two have died from the disease. Of those, 103 cases are considered “active,” according to the state Department of Public Safety.
As of Monday morning, 1,050 of the state’s roughly 14,000 prison staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, according to prison spokesman John Bull. At least one staff member — Barbara Stewart, a nurse at Caswell Correctional Center — has died from the disease.
Of the staff members who tested positive, 792 have returned to work after meeting the criteria for medical recovery, Bull said. The rest remain out of work.
As of Monday, a total of nearly 3,400 state prison inmates — roughly 10% of the overall prison population — have tested positive for COVID-19, according to DPS. Seventeen inmates have died due to complications from the illness.
It’s not clear how many staff members have been tested for COVID-19 so far, Bull said, because employees aren’t required to tell the state when they get tested — only when they test positive. But under a free voluntary testing program offered by the state, more than 3,700 prison staff members have been tested, according to DPS.
In the newly announced testing project, staff inside the three prisons will be required to take a self-administered nasal swab test provided by LabCorp. The test will be free to staff members.
“This is another strategy to curb the introduction of the virus into our prisons,” state prisons Commissioner Todd Ishee said. “Staff safety during this pandemic is a top priority. This will help to keep them healthy, their families safer from the virus, and will better protect the offender populations.”
Based on the results of those tests, DPS “could decide to broaden the testing of staff — and if so, under what circumstances,” Bull said.
Prisons are often breeding grounds for COVID-19, experts say, because inmates live so close together.
When the coronavirus spreads inside a prison, it can endanger people on the outside, too. That’s because staff members can carry the virus to their families and communities. So can some of the 2,000 people who are released from state prisons each month.
This story was originally published October 12, 2020 at 4:50 PM.
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