Cases of COVID-19 at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute have increased by 46 percent in about a week, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons data.

As of Monday afternoon, 410 inmates and three staff members had tested positive at the high-security U.S. Penitentiary.

At the adjacent Federal Correctional Institute — a medium-security prison — 48 inmates and 18 staff are COVID-19 positive, according to the BOP.gov website.

As of Dec. 23, the USP Terre Haute was reporting 281 inmate cases, while at the medium-security FCI Terre Haute, the inmate cases numbered 51.

Both the USP and FCI have reported two inmate deaths due to COVID-19, for a total of four.

The bureau reported 230 inmates and 10 staff at the Terre Haute penitentiary have recovered from COVID-19. At the FCI, 389 inmates and 61 staff are reported as recovered.

As of Monday, the Federal Correctional Institute at Phoenix, Arizona, had the second- most inmates positive at 354.

The BOP update on Monday included information that 7,583 federal inmates and 1,659 BOP staff nationwide have tested positive for COVID-19.

The website said 30,152 inmates and 2,797 staff had recovered, and 175 federal inmates had died from COVID-19. Two BOP staff member deaths are attributed to COVID-19.

The Tribune-Star requested information from the Bureau of Prisons media information office in Washington, D.C., twice last week about the COVID-19 outbreak at the Terre Haute facilities, and the newspaper again requested information on Monday. No response was received.

The penitentiary at Terre Haute houses 1,239 inmates, according to the BOP website. The FCI houses 848 inmates, and the adjacent work camp houses 165.

Cases of COVID-19 have also been reported among death row inmates in the Special Confinement Unit, also known as death row.

Attorneys and representatives of death row inmates including Corey Johnson and Dustin John Higgs — both set for execution in January before President Donald Trump leaves office — have said those men have tested COVID-19 positive.

Ten death row inmates have been executed since July. A Bureau of Prisons spokesperson at the recent execution of Alfred Bourgeois on Dec. 11 said at that time no inmates on death row were positive for COVID-19.

By the following week, however, that had changed.
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