Wednesday, December 30, 2020

State Prison Offender Dies after Testing Positive for COVID-19

Raleigh
Dec 30, 2020

An offender at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women with pre-existing medical conditions, who tested positive for COVID-19, has died at a hospital.

“We continue working diligently to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 in our prisons because the health and safety of the staff and the offender population continues to be our top priority,” said Todd Ishee, Commissioner of Prisons. “We sympathize with the offender’s family, as losing a loved one is hard enough, but especially so during the holiday season.”

The offender tested positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 27 and was hospitalized the next day. Her condition worsened, and she died on Dec. 30.

The offender was a female in her mid-40s who had underlying health conditions. Given her family’s right to privacy and the confidentiality of prison offender records, the Department of Public Safety will not further identify the individual. 

Prisons leadership has taken more than four dozen actions throughout the North Carolina prison system to try to prevent transmission of the virus. They are found here.

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