Virginia prisons increase COVID-19 testing, with 170 inmates and 53 staff who have tested positive

All offenders and staff at Virginia’s Deerfield Correctional Center in Capron, a town in Southampton County, will be tested for COVID-19, and expanded testing is being performed at other prisons as of Monday, the Virginia Department of Corrections has announced.

As of Monday, 170 inmates had tested positive for COVID-19, with nine hospitalized and one who died. There are currently 147 prisoners who have tested positive for the virus. Some others have recovered or have been released. Fifty-three staff members also have tested positive.

The new widespread testing program is expected to increase the number of prisoners who will test positive for COVID-19.

Advocates for prisoners’ rights welcomed the move Monday but said more needs to be done.

Deerfield has 1,000 inmates, many of them geriatric or suffering from illnesses, or both. Many live in dorms and are sleeping across from each other head-to-toe to increase distancing. More than 100 of them use wheelchairs. Deerfield, about 20 miles east of Emporia, has a 57-bed assisted living unit.

The Department of Corrections said Monday that it is following guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for long-term care facilities in its assisted living unit and its infirmary.

In Monday’s statement, the Department of Corrections said it worked with Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Virginia and the Virginia Department of Health to increase testing of incarcerated offenders.

“To protect our geriatric and at-risk offenders to the greatest extent possible, the VADOC medical team is working with the state’s eastern regional health department, local health department, health department emergency management, VADOC security operations, Armor Correctional Health Services, UVA, and VCU to test the entire facility and staff,” said a statement from Harold W. Clarke, the department director.

Clarke said that the testing was to begin Monday, and that 1,600 tests would be needed.

An inmate at Deerfield told the Richmond Times-Dispatch this month that inmates there were afraid.

“We cannot do social distancing. They have 88 people packed in the pod ... for 23 hours a day,” Donald Herrington wrote in an email.

The department has ordered hundreds of additional tests, and VCU, UVA and the Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services also are sending hundreds of tests to correctional facilities. The VDH on Monday was sending staff to prisons to assist with the increased testing.

Last week, the department began “point prevalence testing” of inmates without symptoms to better monitor and treat positive cases sooner, rather than after symptoms develop. Point prevalence testing, which has been done at the Harrisonburg Community Corrections Alternative Program and at the Haynesville Correctional Center, will be done at Deerfield this week.

As of Monday, the department reported that one inmate at Deerfield had tested positive; the Haynesville Correctional Center had 47 inmates who tested positive, and two others who have been hospitalized; the Central Virginia Correctional Unit #13, in Chesterfield County, has 45 cases; the Virginia Correctional Center for Women, in Goochland County, has 13 cases, with five additional individuals hospitalized; Sussex II State Prison has 15 cases, with two more hospitalized; and the Harrisonburg program has 17 cases.

“Getting ahead of cases by testing offenders who aren’t showing symptoms will likely cause the VADOC offender case numbers to increase significantly, just as in the community, where an increase in testing results in more positives,” Clarke said.

Department employees, like all state employees, normally receive COVID-19 testing through their health care provider, not their employer. However, due to the at-risk population at Deerfield Correctional Center, all employees at Deerfield will be tested by the department, Clarke said.

According to Clarke, all facilities are following the department’s pandemic sanitation plan, and prisoners and staff are required to wear appropriate personal protective equipment at all times, including medical-grade PPE, such as N-95 masks, when appropriate.

Shannon Ellis, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Justice Center, said, “Testing asymptomatic prisoners is essential to stop the spread — something we’ve been saying for some time.”

But she questioned why it was being done facilitywide at Deerfield and not at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, which also has a high-risk pool.

Claire Gastañaga, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, also said the group is encouraged about potential widespread testing in VADOC facilities. But she said the department should also be testing all staff members on an ongoing basis and preventing re-entry into facilities of any who test positive.

She said any inmate who complains of symptoms consistent with the virus, regardless of the facility, should also be tested.

“The same practices should also be followed by the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Department of Behavioral Health regarding the custodial facilities they oversee,” Gastañaga said.

She said the organization “remains very concerned” about how the department is managing the COVID-19 outbreak in prisons.

The Department of Corrections and other state agencies that oversee custodial facilities need to be more transparent about the presence of COVID-19 on a facility-by-facility basis, she said, and there should be a racial breakdown of those testing positive as well.