Georgia inmate dies from COVID-19 as outbreak worsens at prison

Prison interior. Jail cells and shadows, dark background. 3d illustration / Getty Images
Prison interior. Jail cells and shadows, dark background. 3d illustration / Getty Images

The outbreak of coronavirus at Lee State Prison in southwest Georgia has worsened as staff members and more inmates test positive, officials announced Friday.

One inmate, Anthony Cheek, 49, died Thursday night at a local hospital, where he'd been since mid-March, Lee County Coroner Hill Mackey confirmed. Two of the five other inmates who tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, are hospitalized. One of the four staff members who tested positive is hospitalized, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.

Another inmate at Phillips State Prison in the Buford area tested positive, prison officials said. That inmate doesn't have symptoms and is in isolation at the prison.

The other three positive inmates from Lee State are quarantined in "medical isolation" at the prison. The three positive Lee State employees are at home.

Lee State Prison is a 762-unit medium-level detention center in southwest Georgia's Lee County, which is near Albany, a hot spot in Georgia for the coronavirus. The spread in Albany, and potentially into Lee County, may be linked to two funerals held about a month ago at an Albany funeral home.

Cheek's mother, Joyce Cheek, said Friday she last spoke with her son on March 10, when he said he'd felt like he had had the flu for two weeks. Cheek, who had diabetes and high blood pressure, was 18 years into a 20-year sentence for aggravated child molestation.

"He had two more years and he was going to come home. He was looking forward to it," said the mother, who never believed her son was guilty. "He was gonna be a diesel auto mechanic."

Now Joyce Cheek plans to bury him in a cemetery next to her church in Dalton. She said she wishes prison officials would've taken her to the hospital sooner.

Meanwhile, 13 Lee State inmates are housed in medical isolation at Lee SP for exhibiting flu-like symptoms, and two of them are awaiting test results to see if they have COID-19.

Multiple inmates at Lee State Prison complained in interviews this week that they haven't been given enough soap to stay clean and are under lockdown, forcing them into to their rooms, where they are too close to others. Asked about these complaints, the department of corrections directed a reporter to its website, where the agency has said in blanket statements that it's working with health officials to ensure safety. The prison system also says it's increased sanitation efforts at all 34 of its facilities in the state.

The outbreak at Lee State Prison is exactly what inmate health advocates have been fearing for weeks: an outbreak in a prison, potentially worsened by the close quarters in which inmates are sometimes held.

The ACLU of Georgia, the Southern Center for Human Rights and loved ones of numerous incarcerated people have called on Georgia officials to release medically fragile and non-violent offenders to decrease the populations of state prisons. That, they said, could decrease the harm done by an outbreaks, as well as slow an outbreak.

Gov. Brian Kemp has declined to support for any such releases. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole has said it is still making release decisions based on public safety and not changing because of coronavirus.

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