Update: Tuesday, 6:09 p.m. The Virginia Department of Corrections COVID-19 dashboard was updated late Tuesday to report 332 inmates and 62 staff members at Augusta Correctional Center as having tested positive.
Update: Monday, 6:31 p.m. The Virginia Department of Corrections COVID-19 dashboard was updated Monday afternoon to report 332 inmates and 56 staff members at Augusta Correctional Center as having tested positive.
First report: Monday, 1:04 p.m. A harrowing situation continues to unfold at the Augusta Correctional Center in Craigsville, where 329 inmates and 48 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days, with little in the way of acknowledgement of the seriousness of the situation from state officials.
About a dozen family members of inmates have reached out to us since Friday to try to get word from the inside to readers and decision-makers.
The scene they describe: inmates who have tested positive herded into the facility’s gymnasium, not being allowed to take showers.
Those with dietary restrictions are not being given access to the commissary, and are left to eat food that may make them ill or left to go hungry.
The message from one inmate forwarded to us this morning: “they are treating us like fucking animals and we are sick of it.”
It would be nice if the Virginia Department of Corrections, if not people higher up the food chain, would at the least acknowledge what is going on, and tell us that immediate steps are being taken to address and correct for the serious missteps that led to things getting to where they are.
Story by Chris Graham
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