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Ohio Now Releasing Daily Numbers On Coronavirus Testing In Prisons

Barbed wire surrounds the outside of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio's primary maximum security prison.
Daniel Konik
Barbed wire surrounds the outside of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio's primary maximum security prison.

Seventeen people have been tested for coronavirus in five Ohio prisons – 13 results were negative and the rest are pending, and those inmates are in isolation. Those numbers come from a new daily update that the state is now providing on testing in prisons and youth facilities. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio had asked for those daily numbers. Spokesman Gary Daniels said many people come into overcrowded jails and prisons with health problems, so COVID-19 could easily spread.

“We practice isolation, social isolation, social distancing. Good luck doing that in a prison or jail environment – it’s very difficult," Daniels said.

The state announced over the last two days that inmates were tested at the Dayton, Grafton, Lorain and Noble County institutions and the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.

Visitors were banned at prisons and jails early in the coronavirus crisis.

While some people at higher risk for COVID-19 are being released from jails, DeWine has said there are no plans to release inmates in prisons.

As of the state's latest report in January, there were 48,697 prisoners in Ohio's prisons, which is about 127% over capacity.

Copyright 2020 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit The Statehouse News Bureau.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.
Karen Kasler
Contact Karen at 614/578-6375 or at kkasler@statehousenews.org.