Coronavirus death toll rises in prisons as another SC inmate dies, officials say
A seventh inmate being held at a South Carolina prison has died after testing positive for COVID-19, the Department of Corrections said.
Anthony Lewis Clark Jr., died at a hospital Tuesday, one week after it was confirmed he had the coronavirus, Department of Corrections officials said in a news release.
The 70-year-old, who SCDC said had “several underlying medical conditions,” was being held at MacDougall Correctional Institution, according to the release.
Clark is the third MacDougall inmate to die in little more than a week after testing positive for the virus, SCDC reported. Samuel Wilson Sr., 49, died Monday, and 65-year-old Martin William Duncan, died July 7.
Through Tuesday, 84 inmates and 11 staff members at MacDougall have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the release. In the past week, there have been 25 new confirmed cases of coronavirus among inmates at the all-male, medium-security prison outside of Charleston.
Also in the past two weeks, Mark Lee Trammell, 60, died at a hospital outside of Kirkland Correctional Institution where he was a prisoner, and Tyger River Correctional Institution inmate Stanley Smith, 58, died after being hospitalized with coronavirus-related symptoms.
Across the 21 prisons in South Carolina operated by the Department of Corrections, there have been 433 confirmed cases of the coronavirus among inmates, according to the release. While 125 have recovered, 308 inmates are still active COVID-19 patients, officials said.
The first prisoner in South Carolina to test positive for COVID-19 was reported in April.
Overall, 95 of the 184 SCDC staff members who have tested positive for the coronavirus have been cleared, according to prison officials.
Approximately 5,000 people work at the Department of Corrections, and there are 16,822 inmates in South Carolina.
Tyger River Correctional Institution in Enoree is the only South Carolina prison to have more confirmed cases of inmates testing positive for COVID-19 than MacDougall, according to SCDC. Three of the 146 inmates there who’ve tested positive have recovered, while three of 21 employees confirmed to have the virus at Tyger River have been cleared, officials said.
SCDC said it’s working closely with the Department of Health and Environmental Control “to ensure proper guidelines and protocols are being followed to safely manage our staff and offenders,” according to the release.
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This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 12:47 PM.
