Half of all Folsom Prison inmates have caught COVID-19, with 1 dead, California authorities say
Folsom State Prison has reported its first inmate death due to COVID-19, and half the prison has caught the highly contagious virus, according to data recently updated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The state prison agency says 491 inmates at the institution had coronavirus cases still considered active Monday morning, and another 732 had the virus previously but are classified as recovered. Those totals, plus the newly confirmed fatality and 12 others who were released while still sick, bring the official infection total to nearly 1,250 among just over 2,400 incarcerated at Folsom Prison, CDCR says.
At least 63 Folsom State Prison employees have also caught the highly infectious virus, 33 of whom have returned to work, according to figures last updated by CDCR on Friday.
The vast majority of Folsom’s inmate and employee infections have been reported in the past two months.
Until the latter half of summer, viral activity at the Folsom facility had remained relatively low. But an outbreak in August skyrocketed infections at the prison, including the death of one prison agency employee that month. Active inmate cases have surged since reaching a little over 100 as of mid-August, an online data dashboard maintained by CDCR shows.
Folsom as of Monday morning had more active inmate COVID-19 cases than any other state prison and was one of four with more than 250. California Rehabilitation Center had 479, Avenal State Prison had 373 and Chuckawalla Valley State Prison had 259 as of 5:45 a.m.
San Quentin State Prison remains among the hardest-hit since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, reporting the most deaths at 27, along with one employee death. Chino’s California Institute for Men has also experienced widespread coronavirus outbreaks, resulting in the deaths of 22 inmates. The majority of California correctional facilities, however, have still yet to report an inmate or staff death.
Across the state, 2,129 inmates are currently sick with COVID-19, CDCR says. Another 470 have been released while sick and 11,449 have recovered. Sixty-four inmates have died. Among correctional staff, 3,598 have been infected and at least 10 have died.
This story was originally published September 27, 2020 at 2:29 PM with the headline "Half of all Folsom Prison inmates have caught COVID-19, with 1 dead, California authorities say."
