More than 80 offenders at the Westville Correctional Facility have now tested positive for COVID-19. State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box shared the statistics during Thursday’s COVID-19 briefing.
“Like any congregate living situation, our correctional facilities are ripe for rapid transmission of COVID-19,” she said. “We have to do absolutely everything possible to limit the spread of this infection to our vulnerable populations.”
Indiana Department of Correction Commissioner Rob Carter said that all of the offenders at Westville who have tested positive are in a single dorm, and they’re isolated from other parts of the facility.
Box added that every guard who’s been in that unit will be tested, and state officials are in contact with local health care professionals. “We spent a good part of this morning on the phone with hospitals in that area, just letting them know about exactly what’s going on in case we need services and even have actually reached out to EMS in that area, to make sure that they know that there may be increase calls and how would we divide that up,” Box explained. “So I think that the Department of Corrections has done an amazing job making sure that we’ve covered all the bases.”
One offender at Westville died of COVID-19 on Monday. Box said the state is seeing an increasing number of cases in jail and correctional facilities across the state.
Governor Eric Holcomb has opposed the idea of releasing low-level offenders from the Department of Correction to protect them from the coronavirus, but state leaders have left the decision up to individual counties, when it comes to inmates at local jails.
