Inside NC prisons, the death toll from COVID-19 has doubled in recent weeks
In another sign that the pandemic has entered a particularly lethal phase, four North Carolina prison inmates have died from COVID-19 in a span of five days.
The death toll from the coronavirus inside state prisons has doubled since the end of September. All told, 28 state prison inmates — and at least five staff members — have died from COVID-19 so far, according to the state Department of Public Safety.
As of Tuesday, 6,059 state prison inmates — more than one of every six people incarcerated — have tested positive for the virus, according to DPS data. That’s more than twice the number who had tested positive 10 weeks ago.
The largest state prison outbreak occurred at Tabor Correctional Institution, near the S.C. border west of Wilmington , where more than 560 of the roughly 1,400 inmates have contracted the virus. One of those inmates, a man in his early 70s, died due to complications from COVID-19 on Dec. 3, a DPS spokesman said in a news release.
On Dec. 6, two more inmates died. One, a man in his early 50s, was housed at Anson Correctional Institution, about 45 miles southeast of Charlotte, the DPS spokesman said. The other, a man in his mid 60s, was incarcerated at Nash Correctional Institution, east of Raleigh.
The fourth victim — a man in his mid 60s who died on Dec. 7 — was housed at Mountain View Correctional Institution, in Spruce Pine. All four inmates had underlying health problems, according to DPS.
Other large outbreaks have taken place at Scotland Correctional Institution, southwest of Fayetteville; Albemarle Correctional Institution, east of Charlotte; and Neuse Correctional Institution, about an hour southeast of Raleigh. At each of those prisons, more than 400 inmates have been infected.
Many other prisons have also experienced outbreaks. At 18 state prisons — roughly one of every three — more than 100 inmates have tested positive so far.
As cases climb, more staff tested
One of the first COVID-19 deaths among prison staff happened on May 7. The victim — a nurse named Barbara Stewart — worked at Caswell Correctional Center, northeast of Greensboro.
State prison officials didn’t release identifying information about the other four staff members who died.
But a prison spokesman said the victims worked as correctional officers at four prisons: Anson Correctional, Tabor Correctional, Foothills Correctional Institution, south of Morganton. and Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institution, in the mountains near Spruce Pine.
Since the pandemic began, more than 1,800 of the state’s 14,100 prison employees have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to DPS. The state prisons have administered more than 14,000 COVID-19 tests for staff members so far, the department said.
In early November, DPS began testing 5% of employees at every prison, and the department says it recently enhanced staff testing at prisons experiencing outbreaks. Employees at those prisons will be tested every two weeks until the outbreak ends, DPS said.
State officials also closed three prisons last month in response to the pandemic, transferring the inmates to other facilities.
In a briefing to staff, prison leaders said they were taking that step because of the increase in COVID-19 cases among inmates and the number of staff that have been out of work at some facilities.
“We are continuing to work hard to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 in our prisons,” state prisons commissioner Todd Ishee said in a statement about the most recent coronavirus death. “The health and safety of the staff and the offender population is our top priority.”
Cases are surging outside the prisons, too.
Across North Carolina, more than 400,000 people — about one of every 25 in the state — have tested positive for COVID-19. And more than 5,600 have died. And on Tuesday, Gov. Roy Cooper issued a new, modified stay-at-home order, including a 10 p.m. curfew, that starts Friday.
But viruses can wreak even more havoc inside prisons 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 December 9, 2020 at 11:24 AM.
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