Over 70 percent of tested inmates in federal prisons have COVID-19 Michael Fleming never got to say goodbye to his father. He didn’t know his dad was fading away on a ventilator, diagnosed with coronavirus at the federal prison where he was serving time for a drug charge. .......... But the first word the family received of the father’s illness was the day he died, from a prison chaplain asking if the body should be cremated and where the ashes should be sent. ....... out of 2,700 tests systemwide, nearly 2,000 have come back positive, strongly suggesting there are far more COVID-19 cases left uncovered. ....... As part of the plan to slow the spread of the coronavirus, officials have limited inmate movement, set up tents to increase bed space, isolated inmates at some prisons and identified others for possible home confinement. ........ “They are not testing anyone” ........ inmate Guillermo Zegarra-Martinez told his attorney in an email that his cellmate tested positive for the coronavirus and was put in isolation for more than two weeks. ...... But Zegarra-Martinez was not tested even though he was shaking in his cell with a fever during nights while experiencing pain throughout his body in the week before his cellmate was taken out and the week after ......... The sick inmate was taken out of the cell only “because he was coughing on the face of the guy” who took his temperature ........ Advocates and even prison guards have been calling for reforms to head off outbreaks in a prison system plagued for years by violence, misconduct and staffing shortages. Nearly 350 staff members have tested positive. ....... But Hawk Sawyer said the Bureau of Prisons is prepared with ample amount of personal protective equipment and supplies, including soap and disinfectant...... “We are creating and making the masks for the staff, as well as the shields and hand sanitizer and all kinds of things,” she said.
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