At least six inmates and four employees at a federal prison in West Alabama have tested positive for COVID-19.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, at least 12 cases have been identified in federal correctional facilities in Alabama, ten of them at Federal Correctional Institution Aliceville, a low-security women’s prison in southern Pickens County.
FCI Aliceville houses 1,395 total inmates. At least three other inmates have recovered after testing positive and three staff have recovered at FCI Aliceville, according to the bureau.
At least 1 inmate at Keeton Corrections Inc. in Birmingham has also tested positive. One staff member at FPC Montgomery has tested positive.
Five staff members who previously tested positive for the virus at Talladega Federal Correctional Institution have since recovered.
There are 3379 federal inmates and 250 federal prison staff who have confirmed positive test results for COVID-19 nationwide. As of Monday, 656 inmates and 279 staff have recovered. At least 49 federal inmates have died.
The bureau said that it has begun additional testing of asymptomatic inmates to assist in slowing transmissions within a correctional setting. It is unclear if asymptomatic inmates at federal prisons in Alabama are being tested and how many federal inmates have been tested in Alabama.
In Alabama’s state prison system, at least 9 inmates have tested positive, and three have recovered. At least one inmate has died from COVID-19, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections. Only 116 out of approximately 22,000 inmates in Alabama state prisons have been tested.
