Utah prison inmates, families despair as COVID-19 spreads in prison

SALT LAKE CITY – Tom Black’s hands were shaking so hard it took nine attempts to dial his daughter’s number from Utah State Prison last week.

Black, 70 and breathless, called to say he had tested positive for COVID-19, a development his family thinks exacerbated his Parkinson’s disease. Six other inmates who lived in the same wing of about 200 people – the oldest in the prison and those in poor health – have died after contracting the coronavirus.

Black thinks he might be next. After others around him fell ill, he called to discuss his funeral and the money he had saved to cover the costs, his daughter, Katie Black Wood said.

“He says he’s just going to die,” Wood said. “He feels like he’s dying right now. But they didn’t take him to the doctor or anything. They just let them get worse, where he can’t even send digits on a phone.

When the state confirmed that the virus had infiltrated Black’s dormitory, advocates and family members stepped up calls for the release of the most vulnerable. While the prison has sent more than 1,100 people home early to free up space, the remaining inmates allege a lack of medical care, including for older and sick men who have the virus.

Seven men aged 50 to 82 have died after testing positive for COVID-19, three of them having taken their last breath this week. Dozens more are hospitalized.

Fellow inmates reported that a 71-year-old man at the same Oquirrh 5 facility as Black complained about not being able to breathe for about four or five days before being hospitalized on November 14. They claim he had trouble getting up and blue lips and fingernails, said Sara Wolovick, an ACLU lawyer in Utah who has been in contact with those inside the jail. . The inmate died on Tuesday.

“We’ve been hearing disturbing reports of people with severe symptoms for days,” Wolovick said. “They may have spoken to medics but are not taken to the infirmary, so symptoms persist.

Katie Black Wood

More than 1,100 prisoners – about a quarter of the population at its Draper and Gunnison sites – tested positive for the virus on Friday, according to the Utah Corrections Department.

The first outbreak, attributed to an infected medical worker who treated asymptomatic inmates, began in late September.

In response to a question on the protocol for monitoring and caring for sick prisoners, the prison reiterated that its infirmaries offer comprehensive medical care, with medical personnel available 24 hours a day. It also concludes contracts with hospitals. and outpatient clinics for those who need more care than they can provide.

Prison authorities have sought to reassure families, saying they have the proper protective gear and are working with state health officials to ensure detainees are as safe as possible.

“Our staff are committed to your loved ones,” Jim Hudspeth, deputy director of corrections, said in an announcement Thursday. He urged confidence and patience, saying he had recently visited an area with inmates sick with the virus, and although the prison is understaffed as many are recovering from the virus or quarantine, the dedication employees and the cleaning job impressed him.

The prison said there has long been an enhanced medical presence at Oquirrh 5 and that medical workers are checking those who test positive at least twice a day. He argued that anyone who informs employees of the discomfort will have access to medication and any other necessary treatment.

Calvin Hansen, another inmate with the virus and serving time on probation, has a fever, severe headache and cough. But he doesn’t want to ask for help.

“I feel like a truck ran over me,” said Hansen, 30. “I have teeth that are in trouble and I feel like I’ve been punched in the face. My joints are aching and I can’t really think properly. I have the impression that my head is under water.

However, he did not ask for more than Tylenol, as he fears the authorities “will isolate me in a single man cell and leave me where I will be ignored.”

Hansen has requested humanitarian release because he suffers from asthma, which can lead to serious complications. But after an assistant principal denied his request, he said the social worker who championed his case refused to continue pursuing the case.

Before he tested positive last week, he felt he was doing everything he could to protect himself from COVID-19. The prison canceled programs he normally attends, so he spent most of his days in his bunk, wearing a thin mask made by other inmates.

Most of the others in the same dorm – including a pair of men with bunk beds just 2 meters away – had tested positive in the previous weeks. And his first tests came back negative. But two days after the prison moved him along with 18 other negative inmates to a new section, he learned he had the virus.

He is also concerned about older and sicker detainees who find it difficult to get the medical care they need.

“They provide little or no medical assistance. I feel like they’re leaving us here to die, ”he says. “I’m terrified. People are wandering around like zombies.”

If the 70-year-old black man wants to ask for help, his daughter feels he won’t be able to communicate. His illness affects not only his hands, but also his thinking and memory, so she says he cannot fill out a form to seek medical help.

“With COVID, I know he’s really sick. He probably won’t make it, ”Wood said. “He’s been gone since I was 19. So I got used to it, but that’s not how I wanted it to end, because my whole career has helped them get out of prison. It’s just hard to know he’s gonna be gone and there’s nothing I can do.

Her father maintained his innocence, a factor she said kept him in prison longer than if he had pleaded guilty. A 2003 jury found him guilty of eight counts of child sexual abuse, a felony in the first degree, and he was sentenced to at least 25 years and up to life.

Utah County Sheriff’s Office

Wood has long advocated overturning convictions after saying his father was wrongly charged. She said her efforts were partly blocked because DNA evidence had not been taken into account in the case.

A botanist who has managed greenhouses at BYU for 25 years, Black is a devout Latter-day Saint who has long attended services in his own faith and several others in prison, Wood said.

She believes she has exhausted all avenues to advocate for her release after writing to the Utah Pardons and Parole Board several times since April and making contact with lawyers. She also pleaded with Governor Gary Herbert and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for help to expedite the process.

Wood notes that his father needs knee surgery and needs a walker to get around, and has a long list of other health issues like diabetes. She volunteered to keep him under house arrest with an ankle monitor at her home in Layton, pledging to install security cameras and hire a probation agency to monitor her while she is at work.

“Please don’t let my father die this way,” she wrote to the board in an April email she shared with Deseret News.

Wood and his father sought help from a social worker, who filed for compassionate release in August. The council acknowledged his request that month, an optimistic black man wrote in a letter home. But nearly three months later, the board hasn’t informed them of any determination, Wood said.

Wolovick, of the ACLU, said the council had failed to release dozens of people identified for humanitarian release because they are dying or very ill, including some who cannot complete treatment because virus precautions put programs on hold.

“These are people that the DOC itself recommended to be released,” Wolovick said.

Brett Varoz, chief hearing officer for the Utah Pardon and Parole Board, said his agency must strike a balance between an inmate’s situation and public safety considerations.

“There are individuals, again, who have very serious crimes in the prison, and not everyone will be released on the basis of COVID,” he said.

Inmates who wish to do so have three options.

They can apply for humanitarian release if they have significant health problems or if a tragedy occurs in their family, although there are no requirements set and the council considers requests on a case-by-case basis, a declared Varoz.

Prisoners within six months of their scheduled release can also apply for early parole if they can prove they have accommodation.

If they do not meet these criteria, they can request a special review from the parole board, a process usually initiated by a person’s lawyer, although the chances of success are less likely.

Varoz said he receives several calls and emails a day from family members expressing frustration and concern.

Wood’s father previously lived in his own cell. But as a precautionary measure earlier in the year, the prison transferred every inmate with serious health issues to the dormitory, with beds 4 feet apart, she said. Eventually, in October, the virus made its way there and medical staff began recording his father’s temperature and blood oxygen levels.

“Because it was such an open floor and there were so many people, it went like wildfire through them all,” Wood said.

Contributing: Amy donaldson

Spenser Heaps, Deseret News