Miami Correctional Facility reports ninth COVID-19 death, second highest total among Indiana's 22 state prisons

Jared Keever, Editor, Peru Tribune

Wednesday, January 13, 2021 11:11 AM

The state prison in Miami County has seen more deaths stemming from COVID-19 than nearly all other prisons in the state.

As of Tuesday, nine inmates are listed as having died at the Miami Correctional Facility on the Indiana Department of Correction website that tracks coronavirus data. Of those deaths, four are listed as “presumed” COVID-19 deaths and five are confirmed.

Only one other facility of the 22 that the Department of Correction operates throughout the state – including juvenile facilities – has seen more.

Tuesday’s update from the department showed that the facility in Plainfield has recorded 10 deaths, eight of which are confirmed. The prison in New Castle has seen eight deaths, with six confirmed.

Deaths at the local prison are up from late November when data showed there was one confirmed death and three presumed.

At the time, the Department of Correction website showed that 143 inmates had tested positive at Miami Correctional with 108 having recovered.

Those were up from early September, when, just before the Labor Day holiday, the prison saw its first sizable outbreak. It ended that month with 79 cases having been identified and 78 inmates listed as having recovered.

At the time, the prison showed one death “presumed” to have been caused by COVID-19, though that death was recorded prior to the Labor Day surge in cases.

Tuesday’s Department of Correction numbers showed 239 local positive cases with 214 recoveries.

There have been 48 presumed and confirmed COVID-19 deaths among Indiana inmates since the start of the pandemic.

HOME

Editor, John C. DePrez Jr.; Executive Editor, Carol Rogers; Publishers: IBRC and IAR