Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal on Friday defended his agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic amid criticism from corrections workers, inmates and civil rights attorneys that inaction of officials caused the virus to fester in prisons.

“I don’t think anybody was ready for this covid, so we’re dealing with it just as well as anybody else, and I’d be proud to say we’re doing pretty good,” Carvajal said in an interview with CNN, his first with a national news outlet since the pandemic began.

Since the pandemic reached the United States, nine federal inmates have died of the coronavirus, according to the BOP, including six at Oakdale prison in rural Louisiana, the outbreak’s epicenter in the federal prison system. As of Friday, 318 federal inmates and 163 corrections staff have tested positive for coronavirus, according to the BOP.

Inmates and corrections officers have reported shortages of masks, gloves and other protective equipment and say they’ve continued to work and serve in cramped, unsanitary conditions despite instructions from …continued .
[Source: Washington Post]