Three Mississippi prison system employees test positive for coronavirus

Three employees with the Mississippi Department of Corrections have tested positive for COVID-19, the agency announced Monday.

A total of 11 MDOC employees have been tested for the disease caused by the new coronavirus that has infected more than 1,700 people and killed 51 in Mississippi.

"To my knowledge, none of them were working at specific facilities," Gov. Tate Reeves said at a news conference Monday afternoon, adding he would look into it further.

The governor's office and MDOC did not immediately respond to questions seeking clarification on whether the corrections employees who tested positive worked in prisons.

Three inmates have also been tested, Reeves said. Two tests have come back negative and the third's results are not yet known. That means as of Monday, no inmates have tested positive for COVID-19.

For weeks, prisoners rights advocates have been warning of dire consequences when — not if — the coronavirus spreads to the prison system.

People in prison, housed in close quarters, can't socially distance from one another. They have limited, if any, access to personal hygiene supplies and protective equipment. Many suffer from pre-existing health problems. The prison system has long faced allegations of inadequate medical care.

Coronavirus could "spread like wildfire" in the prison, Jordan Siev, a partner at Reed Smith law firm in New York, told the Clarion Ledger last week.

Siev is helping with Jay-Z and Yo Gotti's Team Roc litigation against Parchman.

The virus won't just impact inmates, Siev warned. Think of the guards, law enforcement officers and lawyers, he said.

"At the end of the day, these people come in, they leave the jail, they go home. They've got families, they've got kids, they've got neighbors," Siev said. "If an outbreak starts in prison, it doesn't stay within those walls."

The coronavirus has proved to be disastrous in prisons and jails. An outbreak at a federal prison in Louisiana has killed at least five inmates and hospitalized more than a dozen others, reports NOLA.com.

MDOC previously refused to say whether employees had gotten sick

Last week, MDOC spokeswoman Grace Fisher refused to say whether employees had tested positive for COVID-19.

"For security, medical and privacy reasons, I am unable to discuss specifics about employees or answer questions about specific locations," Fisher said in an email to the Clarion Ledger Friday evening.

When pressed for further explanation, Fisher did not respond.

Other prison systems across the country have announced when correctional officers contract coronavirus. For example, the day an officer tested positive, the South Carolina Department of Corrections announced the case, the facility he worked in and the number of inmates at the housing unit who could have been exposed. Alabama's department of corrections has also released information when guards become infected, including where they worked. Both the Federal Bureau of Prisons and Immigration and Customs Enforcement keeps a running tally of inmate and staff infections on their websites.

It wasn't until Reeves was asked at a news conference about possible coronavirus cases among MDOC staff that he confirmed there were two positive cases.

When Reeves took office in January in the wake of deadly prison riots, he promised more transparency in the state's prison system.

Monday evening, Fisher announced the number of number of positive cases among MDOC employees has increased to three.

Advocates call on MDOC to do more

More than two weeks ago, civil rights group urged state leaders to develop plans to prevent and manage the spread of COVID-19 in Mississippi prisons and jails.

"Imprisoned and detained people are highly vulnerable to outbreaks of contagious illnesses such as COVID-19,” said a letter addressed to Gov. Tate Reeves. “They are housed in close quarters and are often in poor health. Without the active engagement of those who administer the facility, they have little ability to learn about ongoing public health crises or to take necessary preventative measures if they do manage to learn of them.”

Advocates have asked Reeves to release at-risk inmates, including people who are elderly, have compromised immune systems or pregnant. They also called for prison officials to provide adequate hygiene supplies, including soap, hand sanitizer, tissues and clean laundry to prisoners and staff and waive co-pays for medical visits until the end of the pandemic.

MDOC has said the state is not releasing inmates for the pandemic.

Contact Alissa Zhu at azhu@gannett.com. Follow @AlissaZhu on Twitter.