South Central Regional Jail Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Additional Deaths At Mount Olive Likely Both Linked To COVID

West Virginia corrections officials say they’re now linking a prisoner death in July to COVID-19, referring to newer medical records that they received Tuesday.

This marks the second known COVID-related death of a prisoner within the state Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, after the agency reported its first inmate death in Charleston on Aug. 28. The DCR also said Wednesday that COVID-19 was possibly the cause of a third prisoner’s death from Sunday, Sept. 13.

When the DCR first reported the death of a 73-year-old man at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex in July, they said medical providers found COVID-19 was not a contributing factor in the prisoner’s death.

The division released this information roughly a week and a half after the prisoner’s reported July 17 death. The agency said he had been receiving hospice care from the prison infirmary for stage 4 metastatic cancer, and a coronavirus test administered shortly before the prisoner’s death came back positive after he died.

A new report finalized nearly two months later from the West Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner disproves that initial assessment and lists COVID-19 as a complicating factor, according to a press release from the DCR on Wednesday.

The DCR declined to share a copy of the medical examiner’s report with West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

A second prisoner from Mount Olive reportedly died on Sunday, Sept. 13, at an outside hospital. The 54-year-old man also had an underlying medical condition and was hospitalized after testing positive for the coronavirus in late August, according to the DCR.

Prison officials are still waiting on results from the Chief Medical Examiner, but the DCR said in its Wednesday statement that a preliminary assessment from the hospital linked the prisoner’s death to COVID-19.

The DCR reported there were still 28 active cases of the coronavirus among Mount Olive prisoners on Wednesday. More than 160 prisoners there have recovered from COVID-19 after testing positive for the virus during a late August facility-wide testing effort.

On Aug. 28, the U.S. Marshals Service confirmed a prisoner being held on federal charges at the DCR-run South Central Regional Jail had died from the coronavirus.

The 40-year-old prisoner was indicted on child pornography-related charges in January and had a trial scheduled for September, according to court records. He was the state’s first COVID-related inmate death.

More than 60 others at South Central have recovered from the coronavirus, according to data from the DCR Wednesday.

Although numbers from the DCR show that no state prisons are over capacity, records showed on Wednesday that all 10 of the state’s regional jails were over capacity.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

W.Va. Prison Officials Monitor COVID-19 Cases At Mount Olive

West Virginia prison officials have identified three prisoner COVID-19 cases at the Mount Olive Correctional Center in Fayette County as of Monday.

Three prisoners at Mount Olive and three employees tested positive for the coronavirus by Monday afternoon, according to data from the state Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“Corrections did what they’ve been doing over and over, just running to the fire,” Justice said during a regularly scheduled virtual press briefing Monday.

According to DCR spokesman Lawrence Messina, staff tested all of the prisoners occupying the housing unit where two active cases of the coronavirus were identified.

The DCR also tested randomly selected prisoners from the other five housing units at Mount Olive.

All tests from the Mount Olive medical unit, which the DCR tested in its entirety, came back negative on Monday.

Whether DCR tests everyone at Mount Olive depends on the roughly 185 pending results from Mount Olive prisoners and input from the state Bureau for Public Health.

There are 1,020 prisoners total at the Mount Olive correctional center and work camp.

Less than two weeks ago, the DCR tested all prisoners and staff at the South Central Regional Jail, where roughly 60 people have tested positive for the virus since then.

By Monday afternoon, the division reported 57 prisoners had recovered from the coronavirus. The facility remains on lockdown, according to Justice.

Systemwide, there are 14 employees, including six workers in Charleston and three at the regional jail in Raleigh County, who have tested positive for the coronavirus. They are all self-quarantining from home, according to Messina.

All 10 regional jails were over capacity Sunday afternoon, despite guidance from state court officials to local courts and a new law to reduce jail overcrowding.

No prisons were over capacity.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

This story was corrected on Tuesday, August 25, 2020, to report the accurate number of empoyees who have active cases of COVID-19 at Mount Olive. Only three employees and three prisoners by Monday had active cases of the coronavirus.

W.Va. Jail Sued Over Response to Water Crisis

A lawsuit claims some West Virginia inmates were so desperate for water they tried to drink from toilets during a water crisis.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the suit was filed on behalf of inmates at South Central Regional Jail between Jan. 9-14, 2014. That was at a time when area residents were told not to use water for anything but flushing toilets and fighting fires due to a chemical spill in a river.

The West Virginia Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit in federal court in Charleston.

The suit contains many more allegations about how the West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority handled the water crisis.

The state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety has defended allegations about how inmates were treated.

ACLU to Sue on Behalf of Inmates During Water Crisis

The American Civil Liberties Union says it plans to sue the state on behalf of jail inmates over water rations during a 2014 chemical spill that contaminated the drinking water of more than 300,000 people.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the ACLU’s state chapter issued the notice Tuesday alleging South Central Regional Jail inmates were given inadequate amounts of drinking and bathing water from Jan. 9 to 14, 2014.

ACLU attorney Jamie Lynn Crofts says inmates were given as little as two bottles of water to drink per day. The notice says inmates were retaliated against when they requested more water and medical attention.

State Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety spokesman Lawrence Messina says officers worked overtime to distribute bottled water until regular water use was restored.