Without widespread testing, the coronavirus exploded in an Oklahoma prison

[TexasTowelie]

Without mandatory testing for staff and inmates transferred from another prison, COVID-19 has spread rapidly at Dr. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Taft, where women sleep on bunk beds in open dormitories.

Women at the minimum-security facility spend most of their day sitting on their bunk beds inside crowded dorms under quarantine, said Chelsea Norton, a prisoner at Eddie Warrior who has tested positive for the virus. Norton said she experienced mild symptoms including a loss of smell and headaches.

“We kind of just feel helpless,” Norton said. “As far as we can see, there’s not anybody speaking up on our behalf.”

Women at Eddie Warrior, which houses more than 800 prisoners, use communal bathrooms and sleep in bunk beds spaced close enough that the women can reach out and touch each other, Norton said.

Read more: https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/without-widespread-testing-the-coronavirus-exploded-in-an-oklahoma-prison/