More inmates test positive for virus at Southeast Correctional Center

Two more inmates at the Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston, Missouri, have tested positive for COVID-19, according to data released Wednesday by the Missouri Department of Corrections. 

A total of six positive cases of COVID-19 have now been linked to the men’s state prison — three inmates and three staff member cases. 

Missouri Department of Corrections director Anne Precythe announced the facility’s first case in an April 11 message regarding a staff member who had tested positive and last entered the facility April 7. Five days later, the department announced two more employees at the facility had tested positive.

All three staff members who tested positive are in quarantine at their homes, according to the department, as well as all staff with whom they had close contact.

Information about the facility’s first inmate to test positive was shared Tuesday in a news release from Missouri Department of Corrections communications director Karen Pojmann which marked the case as the first MODOC inmate to test positive for COVID-19 while inside a Missouri state prison.

“The offender has been held in an isolation wing at SECC since April 15, when he began exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms, and continues to be treated there,” the release stated. “His cell mate also remains isolated, separately.”

The housing wing the inmate was in has been in quarantine since April 15, according to the release, and every resident in the inmate’s housing wing, as well as the rest of the housing unit, is being individually screened for fever and other symptoms associated with COVID-19. 

Pojmann said the wing has the capacity to hold about 70 inmates.

Any inmates found to be exhibiting symptoms “will be placed in isolation pending COVID-19 test results,” the release stated.

“A viral containment plan is in effect at SECC and all other state prisons,” the release stated. “Each offender interacts only with residents of his own housing unit at all times, including meals and recreation, avoiding contact with other offenders and staff.”

According to the release, the Missouri Department of Corrections has instituted the following operational changes:

• The department has implemented strict sanitation schedules at every facility, with ample access to cleaning supplies, and has designated a point person at each facility to enforce sanitizing guidelines and to ensure the availability of soap and sanitizer.
• The department has suspended visiting, volunteer and reentry partner programs, and regular offender transfers among facilities, except in extenuating circumstances.
• All staff are screened, with temperature checks, before entering a facility.
• Corizon Health provides around-the-clock on-site medical care at every prison, and medical staff have been trained in COVID-19 preparation and response.
• Isolation cells, wings and units have been designated inside prisons. Offenders with symptoms of COVID-19, the flu or other communicable diseases are isolated from other offenders.
• COVID-19 testing is available at every prison. Offenders with COVID-19 symptoms are tested in accordance with U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
• COVID-19-enhanced pandemic protocols have been implemented at every prison.

Last week, Pojmann stated there are 1,334 offenders and 387 staff members at the Southeast Correctional Center.

Throughout the state, a total of about 11,000 correctional employees supervise about 27,000 people in institutions and 62,000 on probation and parole, according to Missouri Department of Corrections website. As of today, 66 inmates have been tested in the State of Missouri.