As if prison confinement was not punishment enough, the media has learned that nearly all the inmates in a Louisiana prison dorm have tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Louisiana Department of Corrections spokesperson Ken Pastorick told The Associated Press that 192 of the 195 women prisoners in the dorm at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, have contracted COVID-19. Just as stunning is the fact that two-thirds of the inmates did not show any symptoms of having the deadly disease.
The entire unit was tested after 39 women came down ill with the virus, the AP reported. Forty-one corrections officers and staff members have also contracted the coronavirus at the prison located northwest of New Orleans.
“Another five inmates refused to be tested and are quarantined,” Sheriff Marlin Gusman and compliance director Darnley Hodge said in a statement to the AP. The two also revealed that 70 of 358 sheriff’s office employees have the virus with 35 test results pending.
This startling news comes in the wake of the revelation that 1,828 inmates tested positive for COVID-19 at Ohio’s Marion Correctional Institution about an hour north of the capital city of Columbus.
Overall, 29,700 citizens have tested positive for the coronavirus in Louisiana, while 1,991 have died, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
