Facility sees ‘really large numbers’ of COVID cases
DANBURY — An increasing number of incarcerated people at the Federal Correctional Institute in Danbury are testing positive for COVID-19 amid calls for an investigation into allegations that they aren’t receiving proper care.
Currently, 89 incarcerated people have tested positive at FCI Danbury, the fifth highest of all federal correctional facilities. Fourteen staff there have also tested positive, according to the agency’s website. The facility is a low security federal correctional institution with a low security satellite prison and a minimum security satellite camp.
Sarah Russell, director of the Legal Clinic at Quinnipiac University School of Law and a Quinnipiac law professor representing the incarcerated individuals, reported that 80 men being housed in the auditorium at the facility to make room for people who are positive have only 20 cots, one toilet, and two portable showers. The men do not have access to phone, but they have access to email, she said. Staff allegedly told the men they are trying to get more cots from another facility.
“The latest information I have coming out of the men’s facility is just really large numbers of people testing positive,” Russell added.
She said thinks the number of positive cases listed on the DOP website is likely an undercount.
This past week, reports from the facility alleged that more than half of the women at FCI Danbury Camp tested positive on Dec. 27, but weren’t isolated or initially told whether they had the virus.
The Bureau of Prisons has refused to confirm or deny the allegations, saying it follows protocol outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“COVID-19 transmission rates among staff and inmates in the BOP’s correctional institutions generally mirror those found in local communities,” the bureau said in a statement. “The BOP is using critical testing tools to help mitigate the spread of the virus and continues to provide testing for COVID-19 symptomatic inmates, as well as mass testing or serial testing when indicated, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”
A 46-year-old Rhode Island woman at the prison has sued FCI Danbury and the warden, alleging the facility has failed to take COVID precautions and seeking to be released to home confinement because she says she cannot received the COVID vaccination due to her medical condition. The BOP said it would not comment on pending litigation.
On Monday, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, DConn., and his colleagues called for an investigation into allegations that the facility failed to follow COVID-19 isolation guidelines. By Thursday, Blumenthal said he had received further news of “questionable” quarantine practices at the men’s facility.
In the men’s prison, unitwide COVID testing was not done in Units D, F, H, L, and
M until Thursday, Russell said, and at that time, all five units reported positive cases.
Before being tested, some men from Unit F had been brought to work in the kitchen which serves food to the whole men’s prison. When staff later tested the men, some were positive, Russell said.
She also received a report that more women were still being brought into the facility after lockdown began on Dec. 28, but has had very little access to information from the women’s camp because of their limited access to email and phone calls since lockdown. At least four women have tested positive in the women’s satellite prison so far, according to Russell’s communications.
The facility is under “level three” operations due to the COVID outbreak, which entail the agency’s tightest restrictions, including face coverings and social distancing.
“Right now, we have more questions than answers, and the questions are deeply serious,” Blumenthal said.
Blumenthal added that legislators are going to continue demanding answers from the U.S. Attorney General. He spoke with Murphy and Hayes on Friday but has not announced further action so far.
The U.S. Attorney General’s office did not return request for comment throughout the week.
Danbury’s health director Kara Prunty said she had not specifically discussed the outbreak with the prison’s administrators, but was aware of the situation and has been in conversation and had planning sessions with the facility.
Despite the outbreak, the facility’s census is higher than it was at the start of the pandemic, with 1,103 incarcerated people now housed there. The men’s facility went from a population of 728 in April of 2020 to 648 in September, and is now up to 897, according to Russell and the BOP dashboard.
Russell called the increase in the men’s population “particularly striking.”
Shaun Boylan, an FCI Danbury employee and executive vice president with AFGE Local 1661, independently stated that the agency continues to send the facility more inmates.