LANSING, Mich. — There are more than 5,000 COVID cases spread across Michigan’s 29 prisons. That's one out of every nine inmates, and some say their lives are in danger because of the way the virus is being handled.
“We’re double-bunked. It's two prisoners to an 8X10 cell. It's impossible to socially distance anywhere in the facility,” said Richard Kilbourn, who is serving a life sentence at the Cotton Correctional Facility in Jackson.
In a letter, Duane Williams, an inmate at the Ionia Correctional Facility, says the virus is spreading like crazy.
Williams says his bunk mate contracted the virus but it took four hours for the man to be moved out of the cell. He also says he wasn’t given anything to clean the cell with for another 24 hours.
Kilbourn says quarters are close and unsanitary.
“Bleach is provided but no one is really using it. They are not providing any PPE, no personal protection equipment, although they say they are. A lot of stuff looks good on paper but in practice it's horrific," he said.
But Michigan Department of Corrections officials say they have protocols in place for inmates and employees that are strictly followed.
Spokesperson Chris Gautz says he’s not aware of any issues with how the COVID protocols are being handled in the state’s prisons but says lots of factors can impact how cases are dealt with.
“They may have to transfer someone to another facility based on their positive status or they may have to find a temporary location," said Gautz. "When there are delays it may be that there are a large number of positives identified all in one place at the same time."
Gautz says prisons are seeing the positive COVID case count decline but were hit hard by the omicron variant.
He says about 100 employees are volunteering their time to test inmates in an effort to keep everyone safe.
“This morning I was at a prison and I was doing the prisoner testing. I was swabbing noses and helping with that volunteer work," Gautz added. "A week or two ago when we were there, there were a hundred and something cases. Today we only found six positive cases out of roughly 1,300 prisoners."
Gautz says he isn’t aware of the COVID concerns inmates and their families have been sharing but invites anyone to use the proper channels to lodge complaints.
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