Missouri prisons have 44 COVID-19 cases, but experts say more tests are needed
With only 44 confirmed cases inside the state’s prisons, the Missouri Department of Corrections appears to have dodged the rapid spread of COVID-19 experienced in other states like Kansas, where more than 850 prisoners have tested positive.
But experts, inmates and the Missouri corrections officers union believe testing has been inadequate throughout the state’s 21 facilities.
“There’s such limited testing happening in Missouri, it’s virtually impossible to know what’s actually happening,” said Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, who started the COVID Prison Project, housed at the University of North Carolina.
Missouri has tested 599 inmates, or 2% of its prison population.
“I would say Missouri for sure is on the low end of testing compared to other states,” Brinkley-Rubinstein said.
According to national data compiled by the COVID Prison Project, the average testing rate per 1,000 inmates is 126.64. Missouri’s rate sits at 19.36.
Prisoners that The Star contacted said they fear for their health and safety.
One man wrote that the general attitude seems to be, “If they (inmates) catch it and die? It was meant for them and less taxation on the State.”
Forty-three coronavirus cases have been found at Southeast Correctional Center.
One inmate has died. He was last housed at Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in St. Joseph and died April 2.
Prison staff at five facilities have tested positive.
Brinkley-Rubinstein said ideally, universal testing would be conducted at every facility where a staff member or incarcerated person has tested positive. When that’s not possible, contact tracing should be done.
Neighboring Kansas has tested 2,085 inmates, or about 20% of its prison population.
After dozens of cases were identified at Lansing Correctional Facility, the Kansas Department of Corrections tested 240 men living in an open dormitory unit. About 75% of them were positive and asymptomatic.
That finding led to facility-wide testing. More than 815 residents have tested positive and four have died.
Other COVID-19 cases have been identified at Topeka Correctional Facility and the Wichita Work Release Facility.
Staff at seven Kansas facilities have tested positive.
“Across the country, Kansas included, when there’s been an outbreak and then been an expanded effort to test, that’s when we’ve found a giant uptick in cases,” Brinkley-Rubinstein said. “So in places where there has not been robust testing, it looks superficially good, but the truth is, there’s just not enough testing to know.”
Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann said offenders who have shown symptoms have been tested and that tests have been conducted at 20 of the state’s 21 facilities.
“We have medical professionals on site around the clock at every prison, and they are following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services,” she said. “We are prepared to do more targeted testing at any facility that experiences an outbreak.”
During a web conference hosted by the Council on Criminal Justice, Missouri Department of Corrections director Anne Precythe said the agency implemented an aggressive viral containment plan.
“As soon as we had the first symptomatic person, we quarantined the entire wing,” she said.
The department conducted “boxed in” testing, Precythe said, after multiple cases were found.
“I’m pleased with the rate we’re going,” she said. “There is no trigger for all of us to know when you do large group testing, so I think it’s incumbent upon each of us administrators to make those decisions — when is it the right time to test multiple people.”
Brinkley-Rubinstein said corrections officials who don’t have public health training would benefit from partnerships with public health agencies and organizations.
Tim Cutt, union representative with the Missouri Corrections Officers Association, said he is skeptical about the number of cases.
“Without the proper testing, you’re going to get skewed numbers,” he said.
He believes the way the department has handled the pandemic has political overtones.
“It’s an election year, they want to keep things as quiet as they possibly can,” he said. “If Parson can stay the governor, she (Precythe) can stay director.”
Recently, Cutt said, people at Farmington Correctional Center were showing symptoms, including fevers and coughs. They were told it was the flu, he said.
“Offenders with flu-like symptoms also are tested for the flu, and many have tested positive for influenza A or B but not COVID-19,” Pojmann, the corrections department spokeswoman, said in an email. “If an offender was told he or she has the flu, it is likely because that person tested positive for the flu.”
Inmates have also been worried about the low testing rate.
A man at Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center said he has observed officers and inmates who appeared ill.
“It’s already in here!” wrote the inmate, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation. “This is why they’ve not tested us. So that there’s no documentation proving such.”
Another inmate at Eastern Reception said he was concerned about how the department was handling COVID-19.
“What they do, they hide,” he said during a call from the facility in Bonne Terre.
He also said he did not have enough cleaning supplies and was disturbed that some correctional officers do not wear masks.
“If anything, it’s going to be an officer that brings it in,” he said.
Ricky Norton, an inmate at Jefferson City Correctional Center, said the department has taken positive steps like issuing masks and distancing people in the chow hall. But some men have coughs or colds, so it’s possible the virus is present, he said.
“My only complaint is that they haven’t tested us,” he said.
