| Updated: Dec. 24, 2020, 5:09 a.m.
An 86-year old inmate who had tested positive for COVID-19 died Sunday in the Utah Department of Corrections’ infirmary in Draper, according to the Department.
The latest death brings the total number of COVID-19 positive incarcerated individuals who have died to eleven.
There were 964 active COVID-19 among state inmates as of the Department’s Monday announcement. The Department said the Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison and the Utah State Prison in Draper are on a modified lockdown meaning that out-of-cell time might be “greatly limited” in areas that are most affected by COVID-19.
COVID-19 didn’t get into Utah prisons until October, but it has been circulating since then. Prisoners and their family members have said the state isn’t doing enough to take care of sick inmates.
Donte Westmoreland, 26, was recently released from Lansing Correctional Facility in Kansas, where he caught the virus while serving time on a marijuana charge. Some 5,100 prisoners have become infected in Kansas prisons, the third-highest COVID-19 rate in the country, behind only South Dakota and Arkansas.
“It was like I was sentenced to death,” Westmoreland said.
Westmoreland lived with more than 100 virus-infected men in an open dorm, where he woke up regularly to find men sick on the floor, unable to get up on their own, he said.
“People are actually dying in front of me off of this virus,” he said. “It’s the scariest sight.” Westmoreland said he sweated it out, shivering in his bunk until, six weeks later, he finally recovered.
Donte Westmoreland, 26, was recently released from Lansing Correctional Facility in Kansas, where he caught the virus while serving time on a marijuana charge. Some 5,100 prisoners have become infected in Kansas prisons, the third-highest COVID-19 rate in the country, behind only South Dakota and Arkansas.
“It was like I was sentenced to death,” Westmoreland said.
Westmoreland lived with more than 100 virus-infected men in an open dorm, where he woke up regularly to find men sick on the floor, unable to get up on their own, he said.
“People are actually dying in front of me off of this virus,” he said. “It’s the scariest sight.” Westmoreland said he sweated it out, shivering in his bunk until, six weeks later, he finally recovered.
Family members of inmates incarcerated in the Utah Department of Corrections’ prison system hold candles and say a prayer following an Oct. 13 rally outside the Department of Corrections office in Draper, Utah. (Steve Griffin/The Deseret News via AP, File)
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) One in every five state and federal prisoners in the United States has tested positive for the coronavirus, a rate more than four times as high as the general population. In some states, more than half of prisoners have been infected, according to data collected by The Associated Press and The Marshall Project.
As the pandemic enters its 10th month and as the first Americans begin to receive a long-awaited Covid-19 vaccine at least 275,000 prisoners have been infected, more than 1,700 have died and the spread of the virus behind bars shows no sign of slowing. New cases in prisons this week reached their highest level since testing began in the spring, far outstripping previous peaks in April and Aug
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In this Oct. 13, 2020, file photo, family members of inmates incarcerated in the Utah Department of Corrections prison system hold candles and say a prayer following a rally outside the Department of Corrections office in Draper, Utah. One in five state and federal prisoners in the United States has tested positive for the coronavirus. (Steve Griffin/The Deseret News via AP, File)AP