Inmate at prison in Columbia dies after positive test for COVID-19, SC officials say
An inmate who was being held at a prison in Columbia died after testing positive for COVID-19, the South Carolina Department of Corrections said.
Mark Lee Trammell, 60, died Monday at a hospital outside of Kirkland Correctional Institution, SCDC officials said in a news release.
Trammell, who was terminally ill, was being treated at the hospital since July 2, when it was confirmed he had the coronavirus, according to the release.
This is the fourth inmate at a South Carolina prison to die after testing positive for COVID-19, SCDC officials said. Last week, 58-year-old Tyger River Correctional Institution inmate Stanley Smith died after being hospitalized with coronavirus-related symptoms.
Through Monday, 61 prisoners and 25 employees at Kirkland have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the release. Of those, 41 inmates and nine staff members have recovered from the virus, SCDC officials said.
Across the 21 prisons in South Carolina operated by the Department of Corrections, there have been 322 confirmed cases of the coronavirus among inmates, according to the release. While 105 have recovered, 217 inmates are still active COVID-19 patients, officials said.
Overall, 82 of the 146 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 16,850 inmates in South Carolina.
No South Carolina prison has been affected by the coronavirus as much as Tyger River in Enoree. As of Sunday night, 124 inmates at the Tyger River had been diagnosed with COVID-19.
The number of cases flared in the past two weeks, SCDC spokeswoman Chrysti Shain previously told The State.
“It has been a herculean effort to (contain the spread of the virus through the prison population),” Shain 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,” it said in the release.
The first prisoner in South Carolina to test positive for COVID-19 was locked up at Kirkland. The prison on Broad River Road is a men’s-only, high-security institution where the state’s death row is located, in addition to being “the site for the Maximum Security Unit ... where the most dangerous and violent offenders are housed,” SCDC said.
This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 8:48 AM.
