Inmate Dies Of Coronavirus In Long Island City Prison

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — One inmate in the Queensboro Correctional Facility has died of the new coronavirus, yet no one incarcerated at the state-run prison has been tested for the virus, according to newly-released data from the state Department of Corrections.

The report, released Sunday, indicates that the total number of positive cases of the coronavirus in the Long Island City prison is one: the inmate who died of the virus.

Before Sunday, the state Department of Corrections had refused to provide data on coronavirus cases in individual facilities due to "security reasons," a spokesperson said.

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Katie Schaffer, the director of advocacy and organizing for the criminal justice organization the Center for Community Alternatives, called the state report "hard to believe."

"This suggests either a remarkable abdication of responsibility to test or an explicit cover-up of the true number of cases," Schaffer said. "Reports from inside suggest both: people incarcerated at Queensboro detail at least six cases of the virus and incarcerated people across the state describe a refusal to test anyone who is not severely ill."

Schaffer was among a group of advocates who rallied last week outside the prison to demand that Gov. Andrew Cuomo release the individuals incarcerated inside, all of whom are serving the last 120 days of their sentences, to protect them from the spread of the virus.

The coalition of advocates, which included the mother of a current inmate and two men who were once incarcerated in the Queensboro Correctional Facility, claim that one employee there has died of the coronavirus and at least six prisoners have tested positive.

A Department of Corrections spokesperson confirmed to Patch that six prisoners in the Queensboro Correctional Facility tested positive for the virus, including the one who died.

The other five individuals were transferred to the Sing Sing Correctional Facility to ensure Queensboro has "sufficient space" to isolate individuals with coronavirus symptoms, the spokesperson said.

Inmates and their family members told NY1 that, at Queensboro, one floor of the six-floor prison is quarantined and that they sleep just two feet away from each other, making social distancing next to impossible.

At Sing Sing, which the agency spokesperson said has "adequate space" to isolate the five Queensboro inmates who tested positive, 44 inmates have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to state data. That includes 14 who recovered.

At least 211 people in state-run correctional facilites have tested positive for the new coronavirus, according to the agency's report. Five have died.

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