The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services has been under the watchful eye of the community lately. And on Tuesday, some Omaha residents had a chance to share their concerns with the director, Scott Frakes.
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Prisons are hotspots for COVID-19, and criminal justice advocates are calling for reform to minimize ongoing spread.
The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) only recently began testing asymptomatic prisoners. Horwitz explains how this change in testing revealed the drastic increase.
“The sudden increase as a result of this change validates what we have been warning about for months, which is that these infections are going unchecked, undocumented and untreated in DOCCS facilities. And that is a totally unacceptable outcome.”
Horwitz is also worried about the virus spreading to the community, as one documented case in Greene County spread from a prison to a nursing home. Correction officers’ health is also at risk. About 65% of them at one prison reported being unsatisfied with DOCCS’s response to COVID-19. Horwitz suggests a different approach.
Tabor Correctional sees steep decline in active COVID-19 cases Tabor Correctional Center (Source: WECT) By Kendall McGee | December 31, 2020 at 7:03 PM EST - Updated December 31 at 7:09 PM
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - A few weeks ago, Tabor Correctional had hundreds of active cases of the virus, at one point having the most in the state, but that number has since dropped to just four active cases.
According to DPS, 548 people have recovered from the virus in the correctional institution.
Chief medical officer for the NC Division of Prisons Dr. Arthur Campbell says the past several months have been a struggle, with Tabor Correctional seeing record case numbers and even two inmate deaths in the facility, but the work continues to implement protective protocols and stop the spread of the virus.