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Playing with COVID Numbers – Update for February 24, 2022

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

BOP DECLARES COVID RECOVERIES AS MEDIA BLAST MANAGEMENT

The BOP declared another 2,800 inmates cured last week, declaring at week’s end that 1,717 prisoners and 1,415 staff still have the virus. As of last night, the number was down to 1,257 inmates and 1,397 staff. The BOP is reporting COVID at 125 facilities. The agency reported no new deaths.

deadcovid210914There isn’t a lot of reason to trust the BOP’s stats. For instance, 2,500 inmates “recovered” over Valentine’s Day weekend, but from the following Wednesday to Friday, only two more were cured. Over last weekend, another 450 were healed. But yesterday, only one was cured. As of last Tuesday, the agency had performed 129,251 COVID tests on inmates since 2020, but as of last night, only 128,895 had been done. The number of tests waiting to be processed was 94 for 10 days in a row ending a week ago Tuesday and has been 136 every day since. For the same period a year ago, the number was never the same from February 5 through February 24, fluctuating between a high of 1,131 and a low of 695.honeymoon220224

A reasonable person could conclude that the stats are being made up.

But does it matter? After all, COVID is finally over. Or maybe not, as COVID variant BA.2 vies with Vladimir Putin for headlines.

In other news, if the BOP ever enjoyed a media honeymoon on its COVID management, that time has passed. CNN last week savaged the BOP’s COVID response in a story based on inmate deaths at FPC Alderson:

The deaths of… three women imprisoned in West Virginia reflect a federal prison system plagued by chronic problems exacerbated by the pandemic, including understaffing, inadequate medical care, and few compassionate releases. The most recent statistics from the Federal Bureau of Prisons report 284 inmates and seven staff members have died nationwide because of covid since March 28, 2020. Medical and legal experts say those numbers are likely an undercount, but the federal prison system lacks independent oversight… The Alderson inmates and their families reported denial of medical care, a lack of covid testing, retaliation for speaking out about conditions, understaffing, and a prison overrun by covid. Absences by prison staff members sickened by the virus led to cold meals, dirty clothes, and a denial of items like sanitary napkins and clean water from the commissary… In an email, BOP spokesperson Benjamin O’Cone said the agency does not comment on what he called “anecdotal allegations.”

So the BOP manipulates the stats, and it ignores the anecdotes. Controlling the information and disparaging the information you can’t control – it’s the BOP’s mission statement.

healthcare220224Meanwhile, Oregon Public Broadcasting continues its coverage of a suit against the BOP brought by FCI Sheridan inmates, reporting that “dire conditions inside the federal prison in Sheridan, Oregon, have not improved over the course of the pandemic and numerous medical requests from inmates inside the facility continue to go unaddressed, according to Lisa Hay, Oregon’s federal public defender, in a recent filing. “What’s most dismaying to me is that we’re hearing the same kinds of complaints for two years and I feel somewhat helpless,” Hay told OPB in an interview a week ago. “People are dying, people are being harmed, people are being harmed psychologically and physically.”

“The system of care at the FCI Sheridan does not allow for adequate access to care,” Michael Puerini, M.D., a corrections medical care expert, stated in an inspection report filed last month. “Access to care is a fundamental aspect of the care system. Without access to care, adults in custody are essentially left without healthcare, much to their peril.”

Puerini wrote that “The Sheridan facility, at the time of our visit in September, was not following CDC guidelines regarding care of Covid patients in that patient who had tested positive for Covid were not being checked on a daily basis, as specified in the guidelines.”

CNN, Covid-19 rips through West Virginia women’s prison as federal agency takes heat (February 18, 2022)

Wall Street Journal, Fast-Spreading Covid-19 Omicron Type Revives Questions About Opening Up (February 23, 2022)

Oregon Public Broadcasting, Inmates at Oregon’s only federal prison report dire medical care (February 11, 2022)

Status Report, Stirling v. Salazar, Case No. 3:20-cv-00712 (February 4, 2022, ECF 98)

– Thomas L. Root

Unrest in the BOP Over COVID… It’s Staff and Senators, Not Inmates – Update for February 1, 2022

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

COVID KEEPS ON GIVING

sick220201A week ago Monday, the Bureau of Prisons broke a record.  On that day, the BOP reported 9,531 inmate cases, a crest that fell to 7,808 by last Thursday (thanks in no small part to the BOP’s aggressive practice of writing off inmates as “COVID recovered” after 10 days).

The BOP failed to report case numbers last Friday, Jan 28. But yesterday, the number was still at 7,724, a number above last year’s record of 7,690.

Staff numbers (which the BOP cannot manipulate by declaring people to be recovered, u it can with inmate numbers) climbed 26% from the Friday before to 1,956. Staff cases are flirting with the all-time high of 2,107 set on January 13, 2021.

The BOP reported five more inmate deaths last week, one each at FMC Ft Worth, FMC Butner and Butner I, FCI Mendota (California) and Coleman Medium. This raises the total of BOP and private-facility inmate deaths to somewhere over 300. The Ft. Worth death was the 17th inmate COVID fatality at the facility.

The BOP numbers do not include Juanita Haynes. Ms. Haynes, who unsuccessfully sought compassionate release from FPC Alderson women’s facility last summer, filed again for release on December 23 even as COVID gripped her. Too little, too late. Ms. Haynes was placed on a ventilator the day after Christmas. On January 3rd, her sentencing judge finally believed her, and granted compassionate release.

inmateCOVIDrights220124

“Ms. Haynes is currently suffering from a life-threatening case of COVID-19 and is unfortunately showing no signs of improvement,” the judge wrote. “Additionally, ICU staff have advised that if she is to recover from her current state, she will require a long-term tracheostomy. In light of these facts, the court concludes that Ms. Haynes’ current medical status amounts to a serious medical condition constituting extraordinary and compelling reason.”

Juanita Haynes died two days later, never coming out of her medically-induced coma to learn that she was a free woman. The BOP’s environment killed her, but because she expired after her release was ordered, it does not count her in its death total

ABC News reported last Wednesday that two U.S. Senators who had arranged to inspect FCI Danbury with labor union leaders and two state lawmakers “were barred from seeing the main women’s facility but were able to see a men’s unit after a ‘fight’ to gain access.”

Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy (both D-Conn) sought to examine Danbury conditions in response to correctional officers’ complaints about a staffing shortage and lack of COVID precautions.

nosebusiness220201“There was clearly a decision made to try to stop both of us from seeing some of the conditions at this prison,” Senator Murphy said afterward. “This facility, even during COVID, should be open for inspection by policymakers. We need to see it during good times, but we also need to see it during bad times. And if the Bureau of Prisons has decided that US lawmakers are not going to be able to see what is really happening inside these prisons during a crisis, that’s a problem.”

The Denver Gazette reported Friday that BOP staff at FCI Englewood charged that the BOP had failed to “properly screen staff or broadly test inmates for COVID-19… ignoring federal guidance despite repeated pleas from the union that represents the facility’s workers.”

The result, the workers alleged, is the “largely unchecked spread of the virus in the sort of setting that has been a hotbed for outbreaks for nearly two years.” As of Thursday, Englewood reported 12 sick inmates and 18 sick staffers.

Inmates at FCI Englewood have to “beg and plead” to get tested, the Gazette said one union official had said, and “he alleged that the understaffed, in-house medical team had told some symptomatic inmates that they just have allergies.”

The Gazette said that in response to its inquiries, the BOP “said it would begin requiring enhanced screening for anyone entering the facility — the kind that employees say they’ve sought for months — starting Friday.”

As of yesterday, FCI Oakdale I reported 494 cases and Yazoo City Medium had 475. Five facilities had 200 or more cases, another 15 had more than 100 cases, and 24 more had 50 or over.

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Man’s death marks the 17th prisoner death from COVID at Federal Medical Center Fort Worth (January 27, 2022)

Lewisburg, West Virginia, Daily News, Three Alderson Inmates Have Died Due To COVID-19 (January 26, 2022)

ABC News, Senators say they were denied full access to federal prison (January 26, 2022)

Corrections1, Federal prison in Colo. allowing COVID to spread largely unchecked, employees say (January 31, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root

January 2022 Really Is January 2021 Redux – Update for January 11, 2022

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

COVID ROILS THE BOP

control200511BOP inmate COVID cases shot up last week at a rate not before seen since the pandemic started. On the last reporting day in 2021 (Thursday, Dec 30), 1,194 inmate COVID cases were reported. Yesterday, the number shot up to 3,761, a number not seen since January 21 of last year.

Yesterday’s number was 200% of the 21-day rolling average, the highest number recorded since the pandemic began.

Staff cases aren’t faring much better, up 141% in a week to 992 cases. COVID is now present in 127 facilities. Last week, the BOP reported two more inmate deaths, one at Beaumont and another at Lewisburg. The Lewisburg death occurred 11 months ago but only now has been recharacterized as COVID-related (a belated admission that either impresses you at the BOP’s candor or frightens you at the Bureau’s failure to properly identify the death at the time). However, the Beaumont death just occurred and – as with more than 55% of all deaths since March 1, 2021 – was the passing of someone whom the BOP had previously declared to be “recovered” from an earlier bout of COVID.

BOP vaccinations have slowed. Last week, 74,2% of inmates and 69.4% of staff had been vaccinated. Over the past month, those numbers rose 3.2% for inmates and 2.1% for staff, a slower rate than in November, when the monthly vax increase was 3.8% for inmates and 9.8% for staff.

A New York emergency room physician said last week that the current COVID omicron surge is different, both in who’s coming to the ER and how they’re being affected by the variant. “Like before, some [COVID patients] were really short of breath and needing oxygen. But for most, COVID seemed to topple a delicate balance of an underlying illness. It’s making people really sick in a different way.”

deadcovid210914Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported Saturday that a new COVID variant being called “deltacron” has been identified in Cyprus. According to Leondios Kostrikis, a University of Cyprus professor and director of the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology, said, “There are currently omicron and delta co-infections and we found this strain to be a combination of the two,” Kostrikis said in an interview with Sigma TV on Friday. “We will see in the future if this strain is more pathological or contagious or if it will prevail” over delta and omicron, he said.

As of yesterday, however, an Imperial College (UK) scientist cast doubt on the Cypriot report, saying “the so-called ‘Deltacron’ variant that was discovered on the island of Cyprus ‘looks to be quite clearly contamination’,” according to French news and current affairs public radio station RFI.

The BOP filed a motion last week to dissolve the preliminary injunction issued against FCC Lompoc in the class-action lawsuit over its management of the COVID pandemic. That injunction issued July 14, 2020, identifying inmates vulnerable to COVID and beginning the process of release to CARES Act home confinement. Citing the Prison Litigation Reform Act and a December 10th 9th Circuit decision in another case, Ahlman v. Barnes, the government is arguing that the PLRA automatically dissolves injunctions issued against prisons after 90 days.

The District Court has ordered briefing on the issue.

Questions about the BOP’s management of the virus at FCI Danbury may be heating up again. Danbury was the focus of the first successful class-action suit, Martinez v. Brooks, over BOP COVID management 18 months ago.

Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy (both D-CT) and Rep Jahana Hayes (D-CT) last week sent a letter to the Attorney General, BOP Director and acting FCI Danbury warden over “highly disturbing” reports on COVID at the facility. The letter alleges that over 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. “These actions, if true, are shockingly reckless and contrary to BOP and CDC guidelines,” the letter said, and “endanger not only the women at the Camp, but also staff and the surrounding communities.”

As of January 10th, 61 of the 86 women at the Camp had COVID.

Inmate families were protesting last week outside of FPC Alderson, alleging high COVID transmission and inmate mistreatment at the West Virginia women’s facility. Organizers said they hope to spark a movement for prison reform nationwide for access to healthcare and basic needs.

Allegations included that the prison suffered from a lack of food, feminine products, commissary items, and hot water. Paul Petruzzi, an attorney representing ten Alderson inmates suggested the facility was not using CARES Act home confinement authority, a complaint inmates have been making for the last year.

crazynumbers200519Finally, a media report about a COVID outbreak at FCI Ray Brook in upstate New York included a note of interest to people who have ever doubted the accuracy of BOP COVID numbers. The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reported last week that last year, Ray Brook “had a COVID-19 outbreak which peaked at 130 inmates and 25 staff testing positive at one time. These numbers were only discovered weeks after the fact, when the corrections officer union for FCI Ray Brook – AFGE CPL33, Local 3882 – raised concerns that the BOP was not publicly reporting all of its COVID-19 data at the facility.”

Beaumont Enterprise, Third COVID-recovered senior inmate dies at Beaumont federal prison (January 5, 2022)

WNBC-TV, Omicron Variant Symptoms: Latest COVID ‘Making People Really Sick in a Different Way’ (January 4, 2022)

Bloomberg, Cyprus identifies ‘deltacron’, a variant that combines delta and omicron (January 8, 2022)

Santa Maria Times, Motion to dissolve federal prison COVID-19 injunction continued (January 4, 2022)

Adirondack Daily Enterprise, 40 inmates at FCI Ray Brook test positive for COVID-19 (January 8, 2022)

Martinez-Brooks v. Easter, 459 F. Supp.3d 411 (D. Conn. 2020)

WVNS-TV, Relatives of Alderson Federal Prison inmates allege mistreatment at peaceful protest (January 5, 2022)

News Times, Investigation into Danbury prison COVID conditions called for by delegation: ‘Shockingly reckless’ (January 4, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root

BOP COVID Numbers Skyrocketing – Update for December 30, 2021

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

O-M-CHRON!

omicron211230COVID numbers, both in the Federal Bureau of Prisons and nationally, continue to shoot upward as COVID omicron has become the dominant strain of coronavirus in the USA.

As of last night, the BOP broke 1,000 inmate cases (1,011), up 25% in one day, with staff cases at 387, up 12% overnight. COVID was present in 114 of 122 facilities, or 93% of all BOP prisons. As of last week, the BOP reported that 73% of inmates and 69% of the staff are vaccinated.

Nationally, the country added nearly a half-million cases yesterday. Experts are estimating over 140 million people will catch COVID in the next four weeks.

BOP COVID-19211230

The big COVID flareup in the system last week was at FPC Alderson, a female facility. Forbes reported on Christmas Eve that of the 665 “inmates at the institution, 1o8 have active COVID cases and 43 have recently recovered … over 20% are currently or recently infected.” An attorney who represents women at the facility told Forbes, “The conditions there are just abhorrent. Women are sick, there is no hot water in the quarantine unit and staff is short. I’ve contacted the mayor (of Alderson, WV), the Bureau of Prisons and anyone who will look into this crisis.” The attorney said, “there are women there who are eligible to be placed on CARES Act home confinement, but they are languishing there as the pandemic’s Omicron variant rips through the facility.”

plaguebop211230Monday, USP Allenwood was number one with 143 sick inmates. As of yesterday, MCC Chicago had taken the lead with 132 sick inmates as Allenwood experienced the miraculous recovery of 29 inmates. (I have written before about the BOP’s questionable “recovered” declarations. In fact, 56% of all BOP inmate COVID deaths in the last nine months have been of “recovered” inmates).

The Marshall Project reported last week that “as with previous iterations of the virus, ‘everything about prisons and jails makes them a setup to magnify the harms of omicron. ‘The overcrowding. The poor sanitary conditions. The lack of access to health care,’ said Monik Jimenez, an epidemiologist at Harvard’s School of Public Health. ‘Masking is only going to do so much when you have people on top of you’.”

A federal prisoner in Florida told TMP that “They’re not telling us anything about omicron or anything else for that matter.”

quackdoc210707The Nation reported that “Under the weight of ongoing Covid-19 outbreaks and staff vaccine refusal, sickness, death, no-shows, and rapid turnover, jails and prisons have become increasingly deadly places for those who live and work inside their walls. Failures to protect those held in America’s roughly 5,150 jails and prisons have made these institutions into taxpayer-funded epidemic engines that have driven millions of preventable Covid-19 cases throughout US communities. In response, the consensus among national health and safety experts has been that large-scale decarceration is required to protect the public. For almost two years, lawmakers have largely ignored the appeals of health leaders, incarcerated people, prison staff, and community activists who know very well that, despite claims to the contrary, mass incarceration does not serve public safety.”

Johns Hopkins University, Coronavirus Resource Center (December 29, 2021)

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Anticipated COVID-19 Omicron infections in United States (December 22, 2021)

Forbes, The Women’s Federal Prison Camp At Alderson In Middle Of COVID-19 Outbreak (December 24, 2021)

The Marshall Project, Omicron Has Arrived. Many Prisons and Jails Are Not Ready. (December 22, 2021)

The Nation, As Covid Surges Again, Decarceration Is More Necessary Than Ever (December 22, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root