New York state will give all inmates face masks as COVID-19 death toll rises

At least 415 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, including 15 who have died, in New york state prisons. at least 51 people have tested positive at Sing Sing state prison (pictured) in Ossining, NY. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

By David Brand

New York state plans to provide face masks to every inmate in its sprawling prison system by the end of the week, following the COVID-19 deaths of at least 15 detainees and four staff members.

Prison officials will distribute surgical masks stitched by inmates at Clinton and Coxsackie Correctional Facilities, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said Thursday. Inmates in prison work programs, known as Corcraft, have made nearly 400,000 masks for hospital workers, correction officers and nursing home staff, but are often prohibited from wearing the masks to protect themselves, Mother Jones reported Wednesday.

Instead, inmates have worn prison-issued bandanas or other makeshift face coverings. Only detainees who test positive for the illness have received surgical masks. The state ordered all prison staff to wear masks while on duty on April 15.

Prison officials have also begun distributing cloth masks to the roughly 41,000 people serving state sentences. The first batch of 4,000 masks were donated Wednesday by two service organizations, Hudson Link and the NY Consortium for Higher Education, DOCCS said. The state will provide a second cloth mask to every inmate, the agency added.

The coronavirus has spread rapidly in prisons throughout New York, including inside a Long Island City lockup. On April 14, a man named Leonard Carter died from complications of COVID-19 while serving the final few weeks of his sentence at Queensboro Correctional Facility.

For weeks, inmates, attorneys and advocates have called on the state to issue personal protective equipment to all detainees as cases of COVID-19 surge behind bars. Nevertheless, they say, masks alone will not stop the spread of a virus long ago introduced into the confined prisons.

“It’s too late. The virus is already in the prisons and causing harm,” said Dave George, director of the Release Aging People in Prison campaign.

George called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to grant clemency to more inmates, particularly older detainees and people with underlying health conditions, to truly prevent the lethal impact of the coronavirus.

George recited a message he received Thursday evening from an older adult inmate named Dino who is serving his sentence at Sing Sing.

“They just gave us all masks,” Dino said. “They should have given us tombstones and caskets.”