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“It’s a Miracle!” People Say, as BOP Cures 2,000 Inmates in One Day – Update for February 8, 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.

MIRABILE DICTU

Miracle200513That is, “speaking of wonders…”

Medicine has not seen such an achievement in two millenia: between last Wednesday and Thursday, the BOP cured almost 1,968 inmates of COVID. COVID numbers, totaling 7,787 sick prisoners on January 28 had dropped to 5,581 as of last night.

Of course, if this were a real medical miracle, you’d expect the number of institutions with COVID to fall, and staff cases to decline as well. No such luck. Staff with COVID increase 152 to 2,057, and the number of institutions with outbreaks total 131. As of last weekend, Oakdale II has 397 cases, Yazoo City USP 277, FCC Lompoc has 223, and Oakdale I has 214. Twelve more locations have more than 100 sick, and 14 more have over 50. A full 86 prisons have 10 or more inmate COVID cases.

While the BOP does report daily infection tallies for each of its facilities, experts say those counts likely miss a large number of infections. Stat said the BOP does not report granular enough testing data to calculate so-called test positivity rates, a measure often used in public health to estimate what percentage of a population likely has Covid-19, given not every person in a community is typically tested at one time.

numbers180327What’s more, the BOP’s declaring inmates “recovered” from COVID has by now become a sad joke. Of the 53 BOP inmates who have died from COVID since March 1 of last year, the BOP had previously declared 53% to be “recovered.” Epidemiologist Homer Venters, M.D., has cautioned against the very questionable BOP practice:

People that tested positive, let’s say three, four weeks ago, may be considered recovered or not part of active cases…When you kind of wave a wand over people and say they’re recovered, my experience going into jails and prisons is many of them are not actually recovered. Many of them have new shortness of breath, chest pain, ringing in the ears, headaches. Other very serious symptoms.

The problem is systemic. “On his first day in office, President Biden promised to order the BOP to reevaluate its Covid-19 protocols and release additional data on the spread of the virus in prisons. But that specific order never came,”  Stat said last week. “And now, as Covid-19 is spiking in multiple federal prisons around the country, spurred by the Omicron variant and still-substandard infection control, advocates say that the BOP’s Covid-19 protocols are as broken as ever.”

Stat said that at Danbury, “it’s not just Omicron driving the surge. There were 234 new cases in a population of roughly 1,000 people during the month of January, according to data compiled by a team at the University of Iowa, but there’s no frequent testing and those in quarantine aren’t being monitored for worsening symptoms.”

inhumanecovidinmate220124And at Alderson, Stat quoted an attorney for inmates at FPC Alderson as saying the situation there is worse, although there’s even less information accessible. Available data suggest that Alderson experienced serious spikes in new Covid-19 cases during both late December and late January. The lawyer said there are likely more women with COVID in the facility than the available data show, because the facility is not testing widely.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram was blunt: “Two years into the pandemic, federal prisons — including one in Fort Worth — still do not have COVID-19 under control. Executive staff at federal prisons are failing to follow the Bureau of Prisons’ COVID-19 response plan, according to a federal report. FMC Carswell, a women’s medical prison in Fort Worth, does not have a facility-specific plan, employee union representatives said… ‘It’s been pure chaos,” [one inmate,] who is incarcerated at the prison, said. “Carswell is still without a plan.”

Jennifer Howard, president of the union representing more than 400 FMC Carswell employees, said executive staff leaves union representatives out of the loop on COVID-19 discussions and safety plans. During the most recent meeting between union representatives and Carswell executive staff, Howard said, an executive staff member told reps, “I wish we could tell you we had a plan right now.”

Stat, Despite Biden’s big promises and a far better understanding of the virus, Covid-19 is still raging through the nation’s prisons (February 2, 2022)

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Cases spike at Fort Worth prison; whistleblower complaint says top staff have no COVID plan (January 31, 2022)

KXAS-TV, Seagoville Federal Prison COVID-Cases Fall Drastically, Expert Warns Against New Data as Family Mourns Loss (August 14, 2020)

– Thomas L. Root

‘Everything’s Great, Nothing to See Here, Folks,’ in BOP COVID-19 Response – Update for June 3, 2020

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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.

WHACK-A-MOLE

The BOP, in the new “normal” for COVID-19, is playing “whack-a-mole” with fresh coronavirus outbreaks at facilities that had been COVID-19 free a few weeks ago, as well as increasing illness numbers at institutions that had seemed to be on the mend, The number of inmate COVID-19 cases last night (1,954) is up about 8 percent from a week ago (1,813). Inmate deaths increased from 65 a week ago to 73. But ominously, the number of BOP facilities with COVID-19 cases hit 59 yesterday, an all-time high (and up from 53 a week ago).

whack200602

New COVID-19 breakouts were reported for FCI Talladega and FMC Devens, to note two facilities. Both had reported infections a month before but were later cleared.

Perhaps more ominous, an FCI Terminal Island inmate died last week after the BOP had earlier said the man had recovered from the illness. Adrian Solarzano tested positive for the virus on April 16 and was placed in isolation. The Los Angeles Times said the BOP deemed him “recovered” on May 10 after he no longer showed symptoms. But five days later — on May 15 — Solarzano was admitted to a hospital after complaining of chest pain and anxiety. He was tested twice for COVID-19, and authorities said both results were negative. But his condition worsened, and he was pronounced dead by hospital staff Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Anchorage Daily News reported that an Alaska man granted compassionate release from FCI Terminal Island, which still has 32 inmates and four staff ill, tested positive one day before his release. The BOP put him on a commercial flight to Anchorage, without ever telling him he had the virus.

fail200526The inmate’s lawyer says a chain of misfires allowed the BOP to swab the inmate for testing on May 5, get positive-for-the-virus lab results on May 7, and release him to fly home commercially on May 8. “There are so many institutional failures you can identify in this,” said Daniel Poulson, a federal public defender who represented the inmate on his compassionate release motion.

A class action lawsuit – looking a lot like successful suits brought in Connecticut about FCI Danbury and Ohio on FCI Elkton – was filed May 26 on behalf of the inmates at the several prisons that are part of the Butner, North Carolina, complex. The suit, Hallanan v. Scarantino, was brought by prisoners represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and the law firm of Winston & Strawn.

The action seeks an injunction ordering Butner to release or transfer vulnerable prisoners, and alleges that Butner officials “have not taken the necessary steps to address the risk faced by the people in their custody. They have opposed motions for compassionate release, and they have failed to order furloughs or transfers to home confinement with sufficient speed and in sufficient numbers. They have failed to make other arrangements within the facility to allow for adequate physical distancing. And they have failed to implement effective isolation, quarantine, testing, screening, hygiene, and disinfecting policies or meaningfully modify movement protocols for staff and incarcerated people.”

Meanwhile, the Intercept reported last week that while BOP’s COVID-19 numbers included 230 halfway house residents at 42 RRCs, it “is clear is that the real number of residents with Covid-19 in federal halfway houses is higher than what appears on the BOP website.” The Crime Report reported that because some halfway houses receive a per diem rate based on the daily population at a given facility, the contractors “have an incentive to keep halfway houses as full as possible. Critics blame such financial incentives for a reluctance to send more people home during the pandemic.”

huckster200603But despite all of the foregoing, everything in the BOP is hunky-dory. Just ask BOP Director Michael Carvajal, who yesterday testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that

In total, from March 1, 2020, the date of the beginning of the national emergency proclaimed by President Trump, until today, 5,323 inmates total have tested positive for COVID- 19 and to-date, 3,784 have recovered. More than 80 percent of infected individuals have not become significantly ill. The number of hospitalized inmates – those who became significantly ill – is currently only 83 in total. And in fact, the number hospitalized is on a significant downward trajectory (see attached), suggesting that our attempts to mitigate the transmission of the virus is effective.

(I added the bold-face for emphasis). The attached graph:

BOPgraph200603

But the fact that 80% of the inmates have not become significantly ill suggests very little (other than good fortune). More telling is that so far, only 10% of the inmate population has been tested for COVID-19.  At the same time, the number of BOP facilities at which the virus is present keeps climbing:BOPJointsCOVID200603

The only certainty is that while the BOP bungles at institutions like Oakdale, Elkton, Danbury, Butner, Fort Worth and Terminal Island go on, the Director and his PR machine will continue to publicly proclaim, “In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bureau has taken, and will continue to take, aggressive steps to protect the safety and security of all staff and inmates, as well as members of the public.”

A parenthetic note: It is doubtful that the BOP’s Medical Director installed much confidence in the members of the Judiciary Committee at yesterday’s hearing. During his testimony, according to Associated Press reporter Mike Balsamo, he wore his face mask incorrectly:

BOPMeddir200603

Oops.

The Intercept, As Coronavirus Spreads in Federal Prisons, Cases in Halfway Houses are Being Undercounted (May 28)

The Crime Report, Halfway Houses Called Another Vector for Coronavirus (May 28)

Anchorage Daily News, He tested positive for the coronavirus. One day later, a federal prison flew him home to Alaska (May 26)

Huff Post, Inside A Federal Prison With A Deadly COVID-19 Outbreak, Compromised Men Beg For Help (May 26)

Hallanan v. Scarantino, Case No. 20-HC-2088 (E.D.N.C., filed May 26, 2020)

– Thomas L. Root