ISCC PRISONER DIAGNOSED WITH COVID-19 DIES
In an IDOC news release, prison officials provided the following information regarding the death of a prisoner while in custody:
BOISE, July 29, 2020 -- With great sadness, the Idaho Department of Correction reports the death of an incarcerated person hospitalized with COVID-19.
On July 22, 2020, Frank Dawson Conover, 66, was transported from Idaho State Correctional Center to a Boise hospital for emergency treatment. While at the hospital, he tested positive for COVID-19 while being treated for other serious underlying health conditions.
Conover was pronounced dead at the hospital at 4:49 am, July 29th.
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While the news release provided factual information, the rest of the story must be read from between the lines.
Based on the news release, it is clear that this prisoner had not been tested for COVID-19 at the ISCC, which is significant in that because of his (stated) age, this prisoner was (or should have been) housed in H Block where prisoners over the age of 60 and those with health issues should have been housed. Prisoners with respiratory problems, heart disease, asthma as well as diabetes (all considered 'high risk') were all moved to H Block to segregate or quarantine them from the general population (though there are some prisoners who have these health problems who refused to be moved and are still housed in other areas of the prison), These prisoners should have been the very first to have been tested for COVID-19, symptoms or not.
Although the news release did not specify the serious underlying health conditions for which this prisoner was transported to the hospital, the fact that he had any type of serious health condition should have been enough to test the man long before he even went to the hospital.
This is not an allegation that the IDOC did anything wrong, but it is a condemnation of the way the response to the the deadly virus is being managed at the ISCC - where prisoners who have not been tested for the virus are working in food service, in the medical department and other areas where they can transmit the coronavirus to hundreds of of other prisoners in a single day.
The death of Frank Dawson Conover may be tragic, but I don't believe his death will be the last of the IDOC prisoners to die of COVID-19.
BOISE, July 29, 2020 -- With great sadness, the Idaho Department of Correction reports the death of an incarcerated person hospitalized with COVID-19.
On July 22, 2020, Frank Dawson Conover, 66, was transported from Idaho State Correctional Center to a Boise hospital for emergency treatment. While at the hospital, he tested positive for COVID-19 while being treated for other serious underlying health conditions.
Conover was pronounced dead at the hospital at 4:49 am, July 29th.
______________
While the news release provided factual information, the rest of the story must be read from between the lines.
Based on the news release, it is clear that this prisoner had not been tested for COVID-19 at the ISCC, which is significant in that because of his (stated) age, this prisoner was (or should have been) housed in H Block where prisoners over the age of 60 and those with health issues should have been housed. Prisoners with respiratory problems, heart disease, asthma as well as diabetes (all considered 'high risk') were all moved to H Block to segregate or quarantine them from the general population (though there are some prisoners who have these health problems who refused to be moved and are still housed in other areas of the prison), These prisoners should have been the very first to have been tested for COVID-19, symptoms or not.
Although the news release did not specify the serious underlying health conditions for which this prisoner was transported to the hospital, the fact that he had any type of serious health condition should have been enough to test the man long before he even went to the hospital.
This is not an allegation that the IDOC did anything wrong, but it is a condemnation of the way the response to the the deadly virus is being managed at the ISCC - where prisoners who have not been tested for the virus are working in food service, in the medical department and other areas where they can transmit the coronavirus to hundreds of of other prisoners in a single day.
The death of Frank Dawson Conover may be tragic, but I don't believe his death will be the last of the IDOC prisoners to die of COVID-19.