Fast Facts (Full BOP stats can be found here) Currently positive-testing inmates: 157 (down from 163) Currently positive-testing staff: 301 (down from 302) Recovered inmates currently in the BOP: 50,958 (down from 51,127) Recovered staff: 12,794 (up from 12,747)
Institutions with the largest number of currently positive-testing inmates:
Honolulu FDC: 33 (uncharged)
Bastrop FCI: 31 (up from 30)
Butner FMC: 7
Institutions with the largest number of currently positive-testing staff:
Central Headquarters: 29 (unchanged)
Victorville Medium I FCI: 13 (unchanged)
Victorville USP: 13
System-wide testing results: Presently, BOP has 139,746 federal inmates in BOP-managed institutions and 13,571 in community-based facilities. Today's stats: Completed tests: 128,715 (down from 128,724) Positive tests: 55,363 (down from 55,372)
Total vaccine doses administered: 320,077 (up from 319,716)
News Note: As we file applications for compassionate release we are more and more being met with arguments by the government -- sometimes adopted by the courts -- that COVID infections in the BOP have now receded and that the threat of infection -- and of bad outcomes to those infected -- is waning. This is true to some extent -- COVID infections in prison are down as are inmate deaths. But a look at our daily graph shows how previous such dips have been met with fresh peaks, and although vaccinations and antibodies created when inmates are infected certainly reduce COVID's risks, new variances and waning immunity mean that COVID is by no means "over" -- either in the general population or in prison. An June 3, 2022, article in the online science publication Stat news, titled, ‘Too little too late’: Unpacking Biden’s moves to improve federal prisons’ response to Covid-19, by Nicholas Florco, reports:
The Biden administration is trying to finally unsnarl the federal Bureau of Prisons’ response to the coronavirus pandemic, but experts say its latest moves also underscore just how much is still broken about the government’s response to Covid-19 in prisons.
As part of an executive order on reforming the criminal justice system last week, President Biden tasked the attorney general with updating the prison system’s protocols for testing, identifying alternatives to facility-wide lockdowns used to contain the spread of the virus, and expanding the data that is shared by the Bureau of Prisons regarding vaccination, testing, and deaths behind bars. The order also directs the attorney general to compile a tally of all incarcerated people who would be eligible for early release.
Biden originally promised many of these reforms at the start of his administration, but his administration didn’t deliver until this new order.
Judges need to understand that the health crisis caused by the pandemic is by no means "over" and -- as we have said before in this Blog -- today's "clean" facility is tomorrow's hotspot.
Death Watch (Note: The BOP press website announces BOP COVID-related deaths here.) The BOP has identified the death, on May 22, 2022, of William Russell Mills, 65, of FMC Fort Worth, raising the inmate death toll to 296. Eleven of the inmates died while on home confinement. Staff deaths remain at 7.