By Paul Egan and Angie Jackson
Detroit Free Press
LANSING, Mich. — The coronavirus has spread to four more Michigan prisons in recent days, bringing the total number of infected prisons to 13, after having been stalled at nine infected prisons since April 1.
The two prisons that reported their first COVID-19 cases on Thursday and Friday — G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility near Jackson and Gus Harrison Correctional Facility in Adrian — were both selected by the Michigan Department of Corrections as the location of controversial stand-alone housing units for prisoners from around the state diagnosed with COVID-19.
Cotton, which got its first confirmed coronavirus case on Thursday and by Friday had six confirmed cases, is the site of a unit — housed in a separate building— that holds up to about 90 prisoners from around the state who are confirmed as infected with COVID-19.
Gus Harrison is the site of a COVID-19 “step-down unit"— also housed in a separate building — where up to 120 prisoners who have had the virus but have been medically cleared as no longer infected — are housed as an interim step before they are reintroduced to the general population
The department’s decisions to place prisoners who have had COVID-19 on the same property as prisons with no coronavirus cases were unpopular with prisoners, their family members, and many prison officers. Now, those decisions are being questioned and criticized even more.
“They have so many empty prisons that they’re not using — why not open up one of these facilities that’s been closed?” asked Janice Green of Redford Township, whose son is a prisoner at Cotton.
Chris Gautz, a spokesman for the department, said neither the custody staff nor the medical staff who work in the COVID-19 unit at Cotton are allowed to enter the rest of the prison.
Statewide, there were 338 state prisoners with COVID-19 as of Friday, and six deaths among prisoners with the disease.
At Gus Harrison, custody staff do not cross between the step-down unit and the rest of the prison, though Gautz said the medical staff do — a fact that concerns some prisoners’ families.
Employees in the step-down unit wear masks and gloves but not full personal protective equipment, Gautz said.
Gautz said that prisoners in the unit at Gus Harrison are no longer contagious and nurses are following medical protocol.
Byron Osborn, president of the Michigan Corrections Organization union, said his understanding is that both officers and medical staff were going back and forth between the Gus Harrison step-down unit and the rest of the prison because the prisoners were not considered quarantined, since they had been medically cleared of the disease.
“That’s a great concern now that they have a confirmed case,” Osborn said. “Of course, the speculation is that it’s somehow related to the prisoners they have moved there.”
Osborn said he was uneasy about the idea of a “step-down unit” at Gus Harrison, because “there is still some uncertainty about how long it takes ... not to be transmitting” once someone has been deemed medically cleared of the virus.
In any case, whether the virus spread from the COVID units into either Cotton or Gus Harrison, that is what the prisoners are going to believe happened, and that will elevate anxieties, which are already high, Osborn said.
New prisoner COVID-19 cases were also confirmed this week at Saginaw Correctional Facility and Ionia Correctional Facility. Neither prison has a COVID-19 unit.
The department had limited options about where to house COVID-19 prisoners, but the situation is not ideal, he said.
State prisoners with coronavirus are also being housed inside a 120-unit unit outside the Carson City Correctional Facility. As of Friday, no prisoner inside the main Carson City prison had yet tested positive. No custody or medical staff there are crossing between the COVID-19 unit and the main prison, Gautz said.
Osborn said the discovery of a case inside Cotton — and the sudden jump to six confirmed cases by Friday — is a huge concern. The first confirmed case at Cotton was found in a prisoner who was housed in a pole barn where prisoners live in close contact in eight-man cubes, officials confirmed.
That is a similar set-up to nearby Parnall Correctional Facility, where the virus has been running wild and there are 138 confirmed cases — the most at at any Michigan prison.
“That almost to me feels like a fire waiting to happen,” Green said of the sudden outbreak at Cotton. “It’s just going to spread like crazy.”
Osborn said the staffing difficulties at Parnall are significant because of the large number of officers both there and around the state either infected with the virus or quarantined because of possible exposure to it. The department has mandated overtime and called in staff who normally work other prison jobs, as well as staff from other prisons and from the parole absconder unit.
There are 151 Corrections Department employees statewide who have the COVID-19 infection, and many more who are quarantined.
“We’re at the end of our rope here,” Osborn said. “The department doesn’t have the staffing resources to deal with multiple facilities in dire straits.”
The department announced March 13 it had banned visits at all 29 prisons and started screening staff for their temperature and risk factors before they report to work. But there has been criticism about the no-touch thermometers giving inconsistent readings, as well as the fact the department did not ban school classes and other programs at most prisons. There have also been problems with prisoners hiding symptoms and ongoing inmate transfers between prisons, though Gautz said they have been severely limited.
At Cotton, programs were finally suspended Thursday night, after the first prisoner tested positive, but the prison’s Braille transcribing operation and its Michigan State Industries prison factory, which normally makes mattresses, continue to operate, Gautz said.
No staff at Cotton had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Friday night.
Cheryl King, whose husband is incarcerated at Cotton, said she worries that the department has not identified who brought the disease into the facility.
Her husband washes his hands so frequently that his knuckles bleed. He’s avoiding groups of people by buying his food from the commissary instead of eating at the chow hall. Despite those precautions, King said her husband and other prisoners are pretty much “sitting and waiting” to get sick.
“These people don’t have a choice. They can’t social distance,” said King, of Sterling Heights. “The only way he can brush his teeth and wash his face is to go to a bathroom where there’s 10 other people doing the same thing.”
Asked Friday whether the department is taking additional steps to prevent the spread to new facilities, Gautz said MDOC is “always looking into the possible causes” when COVID-19 reaches a new prison.
“Also, as we continue to do more testing on prisoners, we are going to find more cases. This is why we have been testing so much, so we can know where the cases are and isolate and do our best to slow the spread,” he said.
The department has tested 516 prisoners: 338 have tested positive, 160 were negative, and results are pending for 18, records show.
There also 14 prisoners with COVID-19 in federal detention in Michigan.
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