Quick Facts (Full BOP stats can be found here) Currently positive-testing inmates: 9,194 (up from 6,043) Currently positive-testing staff: 1,150 (up from 939) Recovered inmates: 41,443 (down from 42,678) Recovered staff: 9,136 (up from 9,027)
Institutions with the largest number of currently positive-testing inmates:
Yazoo City Medium FCI: 740 (up from 472)
Loretto FCI: 345
Oklahoma City FTC: 272
Institutions with the largest number of currently positive-testing staff:
Central Office HQ: 42 (up from 37)
Carswell FMC: 39 (up from 36)
Fairton FCI: 39 (up from 34)
System-wide testing results: Presently, BOP has 135,502 federal inmates in BOP-managed institutions and 12,312 in community-based facilities. Today's stats: Completed tests: 129,258 (up from 129,202) Positive tests: 50,066 (up from 48,340)
Total vaccine doses administered: 285,713 (up from 284,099)
Case Note: Long haul COVID-19 symptoms and prison conditions found extraordinary and compelling...
In U.S. v. ALFONSO MARTINEZ, 2022 WL 126306 (S.D. Cal. Jan. 13, 2022) (Curiel, J.), the court found that long haul COVID-19 symptoms and prison conditions are extraordinary and compelling, a finding bolstered by the court's distrust that the BOP is stemming the spread of COVID and the Government’s inability to produce defendant’s medical records, explaining: "Mr. Martinez now moves this Court for compassionate release because his health conditions place him at an increased risk of becoming severely ill due to his underlying medical concerns, because he is suffering from long-term side effects of his previous COVID infection, and because the prison conditions and environment are not conducive to mitigating the spread of a highly contagious virus. … As an initial matter, the Court finds that custodial conditions during the current COVID-19 pandemic, taken alone, are not sufficient to justify reducing a defendant's sentence. … At the same time, the court is not reassured by the lengthy description of the BOP's efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in federal prisons, which occupies a large portion of their opposition to Mr. Martinez's motion. … Further, Victorville is currently operating under “Intense Modifications” (the highest level) which is based on the facilities' COVID-19 medical isolation rate, combined percentage of staff and inmate completed vaccinations series, and their respective county transmission rates. Id. Victorville has struggled with its pandemic response, and courts (and the Government) have acknowledged the troubling conditions at Victorville throughout the pandemic. Therefore, Mr. Martinez is living under the most rigorous possible BOP modifications to daily prison life. And because the Government's briefing does little more than recycle facts about the BOP's response to COVID generally, rather than Mr. Martinez in particular, the Court observes these harsh conditions with concern. … Mr. Martinez argues that because he suffers from hypertension, obesity, and major depressive order, he is at risk for severe illness if he contracts COVID. Motion at 8. He also argues that he suffers from long-term effects of an earlier COVID infection. In its opposition, the Government counters that “from a review of the Defendant's BOP health records, Defendant [does not] appear to be suffering from these maladies.”… Martinez has been under the control and care of BOP since May 2015. The medical records that the Government produced, in support of this contention that Mr. Martinez does not suffer from underlying health conditions that might place him at an increased risk of severe illness were he to contract COVID, include only records from April 2021. When the Court ordered the Government to produce further records (including those from 2020), the Government responded that there were no further records from the intervening six years of Mr. Martinez's incarceration when he was in Taft Correctional Institution or Reeves Detention Center. … Because the Government has failed to produce records which support its assertions that Mr. Martinez does not suffer from underlying health conditions, the Court will accept Mr. Martinez's assertions about his own health as true.”
Death Watch (Note: The BOP press website announces BOP COVID-related deaths here.) Today the BOP announced the death, on January 10, 2022, of William Sylvia, 78, of FCI Loretto. COVID-related fatalities now number 277. Eleven of the inmates died while on home confinement. Staff deaths remain at 7.