Federal officials say they will begin reporting coronavirus cases in private prisons
This story was updated Wednesday at noon and 4:40 p.m. to reflect an outbreak at a second, privately run prison.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons will begin reporting coronavirus cases at privately run prisons holding federal inmates, two days after The News & Observer reported those facilities were being left out.
Sue Allison, a spokeswoman for the bureau, said in a short email Tuesday that it has been getting information from the 12 privately run facilities among the roughly 140 facilities holding federal inmates. But that information wasn’t being included on its webpage reporting positive tests among inmates and staff, as well as deaths, which so far have only been reported for inmates.
“The information is being tracked; the BOP is working on an option for incorporating data about inmates in our privately operated facilities on our COVID-19 resource page,” Allison said.
As of Wednesday, companies for two privately run prisons have reported outbreaks to The N&O.
On Sunday, The N&O reported that three staff members and one inmate had tested positive for the virus at the privately run Rivers Correctional Institution, which is near the Hertford County town of Winton and has capacity for 1,198 inmates. That information came from the director of Albemarle Regional Health Services, a public health agency covering eight counties in the state’s northeastern corner.
On Tuesday, the GEO Group of Boca Raton, Florida, which runs that low-security prison and eight others, said the number of staff testing positive had increased to eight. There have been no deaths.
“All of the employees had been recently tested for the coronavirus and have been at home on self-quarantine,” said Pablo Paez, the company’s executive vice president for corporate relations. “Any inmates who may have had exposure to the employees who tested positive will be monitored by medical staff for their health and wellbeing, consistent with the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control.”
As for the inmate, Paez said: “Consistent with protocol, the inmate was placed in medical isolation and will remain in isolation until cleared by a medical professional, in accordance with the latest guidance from the CDC.”
The N&O has asked the company for information regarding any cases at the rest of its prisons for federal inmates. Its prisons house the bulk of the roughly 17,600 inmates in private prisons.
Two other companies hold contracts to house federal inmates: CoreCivic in Nashville, Tennessee, and Management & Training Corporation of Centerville, Utah.
On Wednesday, a CoreCivic spokesperson said 17 staffers at its McRae Correctional Facility in Telfair County, Georgia, have the virus. The facility can house 1,483 inmates.
“They are all recovering at home and are in regular communication with their healthcare providers,” Ryan Gustin, CoreCivic’s public affairs manager, said in an email. He referred questions about information on inmate cases to the federal Bureau of Prisons. The bureau later reported in an email that 10 inmates had tested positive at the facility, and three of them have recovered.
A Management & Training Corporation spokesman said in an email there are no cases at its facility in Taft, California, which is in the process of closing and only has a dozen inmates remaining, or the other prison it runs in Post, Texas.
The lack of reporting for privately run prisons drew criticism from Irving Joyner, an N.C. Central University law professor. He is representing the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP in a lawsuit against the state to release prison inmates vulnerable to the coronavirus. He said the bureau’s lack of reporting represented a “dereliction of duty” regarding inmates’ safety in those facilities.
He said of the bureau’s decision Tuesday: “It’s good that the transparency is widening and we can now get a better picture of what they are doing.”
Nearly all the inmates in the contracted prisons are “sentenced criminal aliens who may be deported upon completion of their sentence,” according to the prison bureau’s website. But the GEO Group confirmed that Rivers also holds roughly 400 U.S. citizens who were convicted of federal crimes in Washington, D.C.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 5:42 PM.