Despite coronavirus fears, prison transfers still happening
In an effort to separate the healthy from the sick and limit the spread of COVID-19, the Florida Department of Corrections has transferred 60 inmates from one of the most thoroughly infected prisons in the state to another compound with only one reported case.
The inmates came from Tomoka Correctional in Daytona Beach, which has had a total of 84 inmates and 11 staffers test positive. Tomoka also has 1,074 inmates in medical quarantine, meaning they have been exposed to the virus or have shown symptoms.
The transferred inmates’ new home is Columbia Correctional in Lake City, which has had only one staffer test positive.
The department says these transferred inmates were handpicked because they hadn’t been exposed. They had not been tested, however, to ensure they don’t have the virus, leaving families, inmates, officers and experts concerned about possible spread. The incoming inmates are being quarantined at Columbia for two weeks.
The intention was to ensure the facilities have additional capacity and space to mitigate the spread of the disease, an FDC spokeswoman said in a statement.
One woman whose husband was transferred from Tomoka to Columbia said the transfers seemed like a “knee-jerk reaction.” Without testing the group, there was little assurance that they weren’t bringing the virus with them to the new facility.
“He could hear inmates chanting at them, calling them ‘COVID-19’ and ‘corona,’ ” she said. “I don’t blame those inmates. I don’t blame wives being upset. I don’t blame officers who have to go home to their families.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, 198 inmates and 134 staff members in Florida’s state prisons had been diagnosed with the disease.
Five Florida inmates have died, all of whom were incarcerated at Blackwater River Correctional Facility, a state prison near Pensacola run by a private contractor. So far, 438 of the state’s nearly 95,000 inmates have been tested.
Overall in the state system, 13 inmates have been put in medical isolation after showing symptoms, and 3,908 more are in medical quarantine, meaning they had close contact with a person who has tested positive or exhibited symptoms.
Of the 438 inmates tested, 227 came up negative, and 13 are awaiting results.
According to state data, 873 inmates are in “security quarantine,” meaning, like the group shifted from Tomoka, they have been recently transferred from other facilities, including county jails.
A woman whose fiancé is incarcerated at Columbia said he was fearful when he learned inmates from Tomoka were being taken off buses and into his facility.
Since the virus started to spread, her fiancé had felt confident Columbia had things under control. The dorms were cleaned often and thoroughly, and everyone was given masks they were told they could take off only for eating or talking on the phone. Inmates received bleach to clean their own cells and were given gloves to wear when moving around outside of the dorms.
Now, the attitude has changed, said the woman, who asked not to be named for fear of losing visitation rights once they are restored after the pandemic subsides. While the men from Tomoka are quarantined, the other inmates fear the guards who are interacting with them will spread the virus to other parts of the prison.
“You put the facility that has no positive cases at risk of becoming another hot spot,” she said. “When the Tomoka guys got transferred, I had a breakdown.”
The Miami Herald learned of the Tomoka transfer independently and talked to the FDC, which confirmed it. It is not clear if other bulk transfers are taking place, and, if so, how many.
A state prison corrections officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity said he believes transfers are happening “en masse” despite the rising numbers of sick inmates and staff.
“The entire DOC is one giant can of sardines,” said Ron McAndrew, a retired state prison warden and Florida-based consultant.
It’s impossible to keep inmates at a distance with crowded cells and dorms, he said, and the fluctuating populations make up conducive conditions for contagious diseases to spread. Some staffers he talks to say they are near quitting. One, who works in the medical department, is “afraid to breathe the air.”
The department is offering a $1,000 sign-up bonus for new recruits, something it has done before. Any further spreading of the disease, like asymptomatic inmates being transferred, sparks more fear in officers of taking the illness home, McAndrew said. He said staffers spray each other down with sanitizer in the parking lot before getting in their cars to go home.
“I think I’d rather have a riot at a prison than to have something like this,” McAndrew said. “To keep this horrible disease at a minimum is probably the most difficult tasks any secretary has ever had.”
In Florida, inmates showing coronavirus symptoms are being tested, but the state wouldn’t answer a question about why testing isn’t more systemic.
Across the country, prisons — like nursing homes — are grappling with coronavirus outbreaks. Some prisons have found that large numbers of inmates who test positive were never showing symptoms in the first place.
In Ohio, more than 80% of Marion Correctional Institute’s 2,500 inmates have tested positive for the virus, for example. Of those inmates who tested positive, nearly 95% were not experiencing symptoms, according to Reuters.
Florida and Texas, whose inmate populations are bigger than Ohio’s, report a combined total of just 931 cases — far fewer than the 3,837 inmates who tested positive in Ohio. New York, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, has reported 269 positive cases among 51,000 inmates. All three states are testing only symptomatic prisoners, Reuters reported.
“Without adequate testing, a policy of moving people around solely because they are asymptomatic is a kind of Russian roulette,” said Todd Clear, a criminal justice professor at Rutgers University, who noted that prisons are “hotspot breeding grounds” for the coronavirus. “It may work a time or two but it is bound to fail if practiced extensively.”
Kevin Ring, of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), which has expanded its mission to other inmate matters, said in some ways, the transfers could be “completely smart moves” — but only if it is known that the prisoners being transferred don’t carry the virus.
“These transfers are putting people on edge because they are not sure people are being tested sufficiently,” he said.