After coronavirus test, Missouri man held in prison beyond his release date
A Gladstone man was supposed to be released from prison last week.
But he still isn’t home.
Phillip Levens, 33, had been looking forward to his release date on Friday but was kept locked up beyond that date while the Missouri Department of Corrections waited on his COVID-19 test result, according to Levens’s family. For several days, the family could not get prison officials to say when Levens would be freed.
Testing for prisoners ahead of their release has been conducted on 1,211 people and 14 were asymptomatic positives, said Karen Pojmann, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections. She didn’t know how many of their presumptive parole dates have been rescheduled.
Last week, Levens’s fiancée Cassie Irvin was expecting to pick Levens up for his release. She took off work, found child care for her 3-year-old and rented a car to make the trip from Kansas City to the state prison in St. Joseph.
But she was told Thursday his release was on hold. Irvin said she felt “let down” and “super mad.”
“We were told a date and expecting that day, and then we got robbed from it.”
According to Irvin, Levens has already tested negative for the virus and has been in quarantine.
She said it’s frustrating that she could not get answers about a new release date after calling the facility, the warden and the parole office.
On Tuesday, she said Levens called her to say he would be getting out Aug. 13. He had been in prison for six months after a parole violation on a drug charge.
Irvin questioned why the department has not taken the proper health precautions so inmates can be released on time.
Last Thursday, Pojmann confirmed Levens had been scheduled for release on Friday. But on Monday, she said Levens “has an open release date for August 2020, which means the precise date has not be(en) scheduled but is expected to be set for this month.
“If his date has changed from a previous presumptive parole date, that change might or might not be COVID-related.”
Six inmates at Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center currently have the virus, according to the department of corrections. Another 16 have recovered.
Pojmann said the department is now changing its pre-release testing dates so that lab delays and recovery, if necessary, will not delay release.
But, she added, a presumptive parole date is not a guarantee.
