Covid-19 in local prisons

Covid-19 in local prisons

Through the inmate population and staff at state prisons located here in central new york.

One of the biggest fears of the corrections officers' union: that the officers might become infected and bring the virus home to their families.

And-they say new york state is not keeping them safe.

Newschannel 2's joleen ferris reports on the union's next step.

Joleen?

Pathogens love prisons.

Here, covid - 19 has a captive audience to ensure its survival .

None 20:12 "officials with nyscopba, the union that represents workers here at cny psych center say 9 patient inmates and 9 staff are infected with covid-19, and they say nys is not giving them the equipment they need to keep themselves safe" 13:54 "we made numerous requests to the governor and to the office of mental health to make sure they're providing our staff and our membership with the proper protective equipment that they need, particularly masks, are the big issue.

Our requests have been denied.

They've been continually denied" according to harmon, two inmates and five corrections officers at marcy correctional facility are covid-19 positive; one officer at midstate.

So far, no cases at mohawk correctional facility.

Harmon's concern extends beyond just the psych center staff 14:45 "they are probably regularly exposed to covid-19 and our biggest issue is of course keeping them safe and keeping them from bringing it home to their families and exposing and stopping the spread" now, the union is starting legal action to stop the spread 15:16 "yesterday we made another request.

Today, and possibly tomorrow we'll be filing a pesc complaint and a lawsuit, suing the state of ny and office of mental health for their failure to protect our membership" 15:41 "pesc is a complaint you file when there's health and safety issues at a facility" we've reached out to the state office of mental health, left messages and are waiting to hear back.

Jf, nc2.

> the grand rehabilitation and nursing home, in