Former inmate speaks out after a COVID-19 outbreak within the prisons
As coronavirus continues to spread behind bars, a new outbreak is being reported at an Oklahoma state prison.
According to the Oklahoma department of corrections, more than 100 inmates have recently tested positive for the virus at the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud.
The ODOC says the spread is under control, but a former inmate says otherwise.
Brandy Gram spent 4 years behind bars at the McLoud prison for a non-violent crime and says the inmates she still keeps in touch will tell her the prison has become a ticking time bomb for the virus.
"I actually got a letter from one of the girls last night," Gram says in the letter she was told, "They’re scared, they’re terrified of what’s going on right now."
Gram adds, while dozens of women feeling achy, tired, and feverish are being properly quarantined, they’re not being properly cared for.
"They’re not being seen by medical care they’re just coming in and they’re testing them and they’re leaving," says Gram.
And that’s not all. She claims the lack of PEE is alarming.
"They gave them disposable medical masks and that was months ago," says Gram.
But according to Justin Wolfe with the ODOC, "That's just frankly untrue. Almost all of our positive cases have been Asymptomatic."
Wolfe claims medical units are checking on the woman in quarantine twice a day and that each inmate has at least 2 reusable masks. On top of that, "All staff take this very seriously. all staff members go through a temperature screen and a health screen every day before every shift," says Wolfe.
But Gram still doesn’t think the staff is being screened appropriately, "They’ve already kept visitors from coming in they’ve kept volunteers from going in there so the staff has got to be the ones bringing it in," says Gram.
She fears it's only a matter of time before an inmate dies.
"Some of the other girls are just really sick," says Gram.
The ODOC says across the state about 360 inmates currently have the virus, but since the beginning of the pandemic, they have reported zero deaths.