Of the 2,500 inmates at the Marion Correctional Institution in Marion, Ohio, more than 1,800 inmates– 73 percent of the prison’s population — have coronavirus.
According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, 1,828 detainees have tested positive for the illness, The New York Post reported. Marion Correctional’s staff has had 109 positive tests and one death reported, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
A total of 667 inmates are being quarantined at the prison, where the racial demographics are almost half Black and half white, according to PrisonPro.com.
“Because we are testing everyone — including those who are not showing symptoms — we are getting positive test results on individuals who otherwise would have never been tested because they were asymptomatic,” the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said in a statement.
“Also, our comprehensive testing approach of staff and inmates has assisted us in identifying asymptomatic individuals who have tested positive who can now be isolated from others in order to prevent further spread,” the statement continued.
The entire Ohio state prison system has confirmed 2,426 positive results among inmates. This equals 21 percent of the total confirmed cases in Ohio.
Due to these new revelations about Marion Correctional, the Ohio Department of Health reported more than 1,000 newly confirmed cases of the coronavirus across the state on April 19, bringing the total of confirmed and probable cases to 11,602. With 20 additional deaths, state officials said there have been 471 confirmed and probable deaths from COVID-19, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has promised to begin reopening the state’s economy in phases beginning May 1. The number of protesters demanding the state reopen has increased in recent days.
DeWine released 105 non-violent inmates last week and county sheriffs have let hundreds more go from local jails as COVID-19 spreads like wildfire among the incarcerated, Dayton Daily News reported on April 19.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 70: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin goes solo to discuss the COVID-19 crisis. He talks about the failed leadership of Trump, Andrew Cuomo, CDC Director Robert Redfield, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, and New York Mayor de Blasio.
In an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Gov. DeWine said he recognizes that protesters have a First Amendment right to speak their minds, but he has asked demonstrators to observe social distancing to avoid spreading the virus.
“They were protesting against me yesterday, and that’s just fine,” DeWine said. “We’re going to do what we think is right, and that is to try to open this economy, but do it very, very carefully.”
Mendy West’s granddaughter, Abigail Eberhardt, is an inmate at Dayton Correctional Institution, a women’s prison which reported its first COVID-19-positive inmate last week.
“We’re all trapped,” Eberhardt told her grandmother.
“She said, ‘Grandma, I know I did wrong. I know I’m an addict. I know I keep getting in trouble. But I didn’t sign up for a death sentence,’” West said.
