We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

WHISTLING PAST THE COVID-19 GRAVEYARD

The country may not “be in a good place” with coronavirus infections and deaths, as Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News on Monday, but you couldn’t tell that by looking at the Bureau of Prisons, a federal agency that specializes in keeping people in places that are not very good.

Apparently deciding that COVID-19 is only a five-day-a-week illness, the BOP has stopped posting COVID updates on the weekend. And, of course, visitation resumes this weekend, which will be a very good thing psychologically for inmates and families.

Nevertheless, COVID pays the BOP no heed, continuing on as before. Compared to where the agency was at the beginning of September, yesterday’s numbers represented a 1% increase in inmate virus cases (to 1,911), a 8% increase in BOP staff COVID cases (from 667 to 726), and eight more inmate deaths (from 125 to 133). As of yesterday, coronavirus is active in 119 facilities, 98% of all BOP institutions.

The continuing rise of COVID-19 among staff, and the near universality of COVID-19 among BOP prisons is troubling. Let’s hear it for the BOP’s “action plan…” 

Of some concern ought to be the two latest deaths, one from FCI Edgefield and the other from FMC Lexington. At Edgefield, Barry Johnson tested positive for COVID-19 on August 16th. He remained asymptomatic and was released from isolation on eleven days later, having be declared “recovered” by the BOP. But 19 days after his recovery, Barry could not walk. Edgefield sent him to the hospital, which sent him back the same day. BOP health services staff declared him “stable” on September 20. Last Wednesday, Barry died of COVID-19.

Tom Krebs tested positive for the virus last May, spending a month in the hospital. He was returned to FMC Lexington in mid-June, when his COVID tests came back negative. He went back and forth to the hospital several times after that for treatment of other conditions, but not of COVID-19. Last Thursday, Tom died in his bed of COVID-19.

In both cases, the inmates had been declared “recovered,” only to die of COVID-19 days or weeks later. Deaths of “recovered” inmates with CDC risk factors is becoming a recurring theme in the BOP, undercutting any thoughts that coronavirus is a one-and-done kind of illness.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported last week that COVID-19 cases are spiking at FCI Waseca and FCI Sandstone. Nearly 300 of Waseca’s 600 inmates have contracted the virus, most in the past few weeks. Nine staff members also have tested positive. “People are scared,” Ryan Burk, president of the union that represents 150 prison staffers, told the Star-Tribune. “The concern is that we’re going to bring it home to our families, our parents and to the community.”

The prison reported its first three COVID-19 cases among inmates in July but had no new cases popped up until a busload of new prisoners arrived in late August, Burk said.

Meanwhile, a third new inmate at USP Hazelton tested positive for COVID-19, workers told the Morgantown Dominion Post.

“This time [the transfer came] from one of our own BOP facilities in Oklahoma. The inmate was not even tested or quarantined before being sent to us. This is nothing short of negligence,” said Richard Heldreth, president of Local 420 of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents workers at Hazelton.

West Virginia’s two U.S. Senators and First District Congressman, and prison workers, raised new concerns last month about inmate transfers. They argue it is wrong to send untested federal prisoners or prisoners who have been in areas with a high infection rate to states — like West Virginia — that have a low infection rate.

BOP, Inmate Death at FCI Edgefield (September 25, 2020)

BOP, Inmate Death at FMC Lexington (September 25, 2020)

Minneapolis Star-Tribune, COVID-19 cases spike at two federal prisons in Minnesota (September 24, 2020)

Morgantown Dominion Post, Third USP Hazelton inmate transfer tests positive for COVID-19 (September 24, 2020)

– Thomas L. Root