DOVER — After hearing from "dozens" of inmates and advocates, a state lawmaker hopes to file a resolution this week that would establish a task force to study how the Delaware Department of Correction is handling COVID-19.

Rep. Sean Lynn, a Dover Democrat, said Monday he plans to officially introduce the measure soon in hopes of alleviating the many complaints and concerns he’s received over the past 10 months.

“I would really like to kind of get to the bottom of various and myriad health care issues present in the Department of Correction,” he said, citing a recent email exchange between attorney Steve Hampton and the commissioner of correction.

In the emails, which Rep. Lynn shared, Mr. Hampton alleged inmates are kept in buildings lacking heat, are denied medical care and have no access to the commissary, among other situations.

Correction Commissioner Claire DeMatteis shot down his claims, describing them as containing a “litany of falsehoods” while acknowledging the agency “has never sugarcoated the immense challenge of mitigating the threat of the global COVID-19 pandemic in a correctional system.”

Part of the law firm of Grady and Hampton, Mr. Hampton has represented inmates in lawsuits targeting the department before. According to him, problems run rampant in the agency. Many inmates are unable to get timely medical care, he said, describing individuals with broken bones, cancer and a urinary tract infection who weren’t treated for weeks or even longer.

“The prison health care has always been bad, and now that COVID’s here, it’s a lot worse,” Mr. Hampton said.

As of Jan. 11, there were 136 COVID-19 cases across five facilities: the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center, Howard R. Young Correctional Institution, Sussex Correctional Institution, Sussex Community Corrections Center and Plummer Community Corrections Center. In 104 of those instances, offenders were asymptomatic.

In all, 1,704 inmates have recovered from COVID-19, while 12 have died. Eleven of those 12 had serious underlying conditions.

Like nursing homes, conditions in prisons are ideal for outbreaks of contagious diseases such as COVID-19. Residents are packed closely together and seldom leave the facilities, while employees can pick up the virus elsewhere and track it into a building. Once there, it can spread like wildfire.

According to the Marshall Project, Delaware’s rate of 23.8 deaths per 10,000 prisoners is worse than 41 states.

Department responds

The Department of Correction paints a different picture and disputes the Marshall Project’s figure. The Marshall Project does not take into account that Delaware is one of five states with a unified correctional system, and its data relies on states voluntarily providing data.

"The Delaware DOC is being penalized for being aggressive in proactively testing asymptomatic inmates and being ultra-transparent reporting the number of COVID-19 tests, positive results and deaths, particularly if COVID is a co-morbidity," an agency spokesman wrote in an email. "We simply don't know if COVID-19 mortality data from other states reflect the same timeliness, accuracy, and the same broad definition of COVID-19 co-morbidity employed by Delaware."

Ms. DeMatteis contrasted the state’s prisons to nursing homes, noting long-term care facilities make up more than half the state’s COVID deaths (539 out of 1,016 as of Monday’s update). More than 10,000 inmates have passed through department facilities since the pandemic started in March and yet only 12 have died, she said.

She flatly rejected many of the claims made by Mr. Hampton and other advocates, praising correction employees for their “sense of duty” and positive attitudes and describing the department as transparent about its precautionary measures.

While non-emergency medical care has been impacted by the virus, such as with hospitals not accepting inmates for cancer screenings due to the sheer workload stemming from COVID-19, urgent care is still being provided, Ms. DeMatteis said.

The department is utilizing telehealth when possible, she noted.

According to a COVID-19 guide on the department’s website, “All sick call slips are picked up daily and triaged by an RN for any COVID-related symptoms from inmates, and those cases are addressed immediately. Non-COVID sick calls are then reviewed by a medical professional to determine if they needed immediate attention. If so, the inmate receives medical attention.”

Mr. Hampton said some inmates resisted being tested because they would “essentially get sent to solitary confinement” if they came back positive and could not bring their belongings. Ms. DeMatteis pushed back against the use of the term “solitary confinement,” saying the agency does not utilize that practice.

COVID-19-positive inmates are sent to separate treatment centers — converted department buildings — where they are monitored and receive 24-hour medical care.

Asymptomatic and symptomatic patients are kept separately, and those with underlying medical issues that could be exacerbated by coronavirus are housed in their own section as well.

While offenders initially could not take belongings with them when transferred temporarily to treatment centers, more recent guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention downplay the risks of the virus being spread on surfaces, and so that restriction no longer exists, according to Ms. DeMatteis.

The commissary has not been impacted by COVID-19, and while inmates in the treatment center do not get recreational time, they are not kept locked in a cell all day, Ms. DeMatteis said.

The agency has had to cancel some programming and make do with virtual classes and similar happenings in other cases.

Work release has been suspended multiple times during the pandemic, with the department hoping to restart it next month. When work release was shut down in 2020, participants were given opportunities to handle tasks in the department’s facilities, such as renovating the Plummer Community Corrections Center in Wilmington, per the commissioner.

More than 70% of inmates in department facilities have their temperatures checked daily, Ms. DeMatteis said, and those with prison jobs are tested weekly even if there’s no reason to believe they’ve caught the virus. Inmates are tested and quarantined upon arriving in prison, being released and being transferred from 24-hour incarceration to work release centers or similar less intensive facilities still under department supervision, she said.

While the department cannot mandate inmates and correctional officers get tested or vaccinated, it is trying to incentivize those procedures. Some inmates have resisted being tested but have since relented, Ms. DeMatteis said, and offenders who were thought to have COVID-19 but would not consent to a test were still quarantined.

Inmates and correctional officers fall into the first phase of the state’s multi-step vaccination plan. Some high-risk inmates were scheduled to receive shots last week.

As a precaution, department employees are all screened with a wrist temperature scanner before entering, and buildings are cleaned every day, the commissioner said. The agency recently invested in portable decontamination units, which are easier to use than fog disinfectant machines, she noted.

“I don’t know that the word ‘innovative’ and correctional facilities is used in the same sentence but that’s how we’re thinking about it,” Ms. DeMatteis said.

Gov. John Carney defended the agency earlier this month during a news conference on COVID-19, saying he has confidence in the commissioner and her team.

But to Mr. Hampton, there simply isn’t enough attention being paid to the conditions inside the state’s prisons and related facilities.

Employees are being moved from different facilities due to staff shortages, making it easy for the virus to spread, he said: “It’s like they’re doing everything they can to try to expose as many people as they can.”

As of Jan. 11, 640 officers and contracted staffers had tested positive, with 562 having recovered. None have died from the virus, per the department.

Corrections chair weighs in

Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown, a Wilmington Democrat who chairs the House Corrections Committee, dropped by the Howard R. Young Correctional Center in Wilmington unannounced last month. She spent about two hours there, touring the facility and talking to inmates, and came away impressed with the department’s precautions.

“When you’re living in close quarters and you don’t have much space to really socially distance, you’re going to see COVID,” she said, comparing it to how badly nursing homes have been hit.

A nurse who has worked in correctional facilities in the state, she receives complaints from inmates’ friends and family members and speaks with department officials regularly. Last month, she hosted an online forum to discuss prison issues, with Ms. DeMatteis among the participants.

There’s certainly room for improvement from the department, she said, but Rep. Minor-Brown believes Rep. Lynn’s proposed task force is unnecessary. The Adult Correction Healthcare Review Committee, whose members are appointed by the governor, can handle such investigations if need be, she said.

The House Corrections Committee also has the power to call on the speaker of the House to issue subpoenas, which could be used to slice through roadblocks.

The goal is to solve problems, not to gain publicity, Rep. Minor-Brown said, noting Rep. Lynn did not attend her virtual forum.

She has introduced a bill that would award “credits” to inmates during a public health emergency. In the event of widespread disease, offenders would have their sentences reduced by 182 days per month, with a maximum of 365 days.

The measure comes after calls starting early in the pandemic for the department to release non-violent inmates near the end of their sentences, particularly those who are high risk for COVID-19.

The commissioner cannot unilaterally release inmates under current law, instead providing recommendations to the Board of Parole. The board issues its own recommendation to a judge, who then makes the final decision.

Through the first four months of the pandemic, the agency suggested releasing about 20 to 30 inmates ahead of schedule.

Rep. Minor-Brown’s bill notes it would have “the practical effect of moving forward release dates for inmates whose release would come within the next year regardless of the emergency. This will reduce the prison population in an orderly and fair manner, relieving pressure on staff and creating better conditions for those inmates who remain incarcerated to socially distance and control the spread of infectious disease.

“By applying additional credit towards sentence completion, this legislation also recognizes that the conditions of confinement during a public health emergency like the current one can be considered significantly more punishing — since visitation, communications, programming, and recreation are all significantly negatively impacted by the emergency conditions and modifications to operations.”

It is set to be heard in committee Tuesday.