Bustos calls for action to reduce COVID-19 spread in prisons

Congresswoman Cheri Bustos is calling for action to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in federal prisons including Thomson Prison.

Bustos recently had a roundtable with Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and other CDC officials, hosted by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.

During the hearing, Congresswoman Bustos, D-East Moline, questioned Dr. Anne Schuchat, Principal Deputy Director and Dr. Nancy Messonnier, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, on the Bureau of Prison’s (BOP) failure to adhere to CDC recommended practices.

According to BOP data, more than one in three inmates and nearly one in five staff members have contracted COVID-19.

“It’s clear that under the previous administration, BOP’s repeated failure to implement widespread COVID-19 testing or provide sufficient vaccinations have led to unnecessary infection of inmates and staff and may have caused one death at Thomson Prison in the Congressional district I serve,” Bustos said. ”It is shocking that BOP would repeatedly delay taking action as staff and inmates continued to fall ill. In order to avoid more death, we must take immediate action to address the previous administration’s complete failure to protect BOP employees and inmates.”

Thomson Prison has had more than 500 inmates with COVID-19. Thomson totals about 1,345 inmates.

“We had an outbreak in Thomson prison that was caused by the BOP transferring untested inmates from a different facility with a COVID outbreak, bringing those inmates into our facility in Thomson, Illinois,” she said.

“We’ve seen instances where inmates with COVID have been housed in the same cells with healthy inmates. My office had to demand that these prisoners be separated and isolated in order to deal with that.”

Bustos also said there have been issues with not using widespread testing at prisons.

“We had other cases where the BOP has not been using widespread testing to limit infection… Last October, at a different prison also in my Congressional District in Pekin, Illinois, we had to call for testing of all staff and inmates,” she said. “The request that came from our office followed an outbreak of at least three staff and 74 inmates. [And BOP] took a month to reply and then denied the request.”

Schuchat said they are working to address the issues.

“We really recommend the testing of staff and infection control practices very similar to those recommended for long-term care facilities,” Schuchat said. “We’ve been trying to update our guidance… but I can commit that we’ll go back and see to make sure our information is getting out….We are in close contact with the Bureau of Prisons.”