PENDER COUNTY—An inmate at the Pender Correctional Institution died in a hospital on Oct. 19. He tested positive for Covid-19 on Sept. 24 and was hospitalized on Sept. 29, according to a press release from the N.C. Department of Public Safety.
“The offender was a male in his mid-50s who had underlying health conditions,” the press release noted. “Given his family’s right to privacy and the confidentiality of prison offender records, the Department of Public Safety will not further identify the individual.”
In July, the state performed virus tests on all 626 inmates at the Pender Correctional Institution, in response to a Wake County judge’s ruling that conditions in state prisons during the pandemic were likely unconstitutional, and after a subsequent ruling that the state failed to comply with the initial order to test all inmates.
Still, Pender Correctional has experienced a rising population of Covid-positive inmates. On August 6, Pender County reported a total of 19 positive cases, and as of Monday, the number had increased to 105 confirmed total cases. A Pender Correctional inmate who died in April, after being moved to a hospital, was the first Covid-related death in the N.C. prison population.
On Oct. 1, an inmate in his early-60s, also with pre-existing medical conditions, died at the same institution after being diagnosed with Covid-19 on Sept. 22.
On Oct. 8, inmates of three housing units at Pender Correctional Institution started small trashcan fires and refused to return to their dorms over a period of five hour, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety. “It was not a riot, contrary to initial rumors,” DPS spokesperson John Bull said in a statement.
Bryan Wells, the warden of Pender Correctional Institution, said the prison has established protocols to limit virus spread and make conditions safer for inmates and employees, including sanitization and “moving in cohorts.”
Referring to the trash-can fires, Wells said, “We haven’t had any more incidents since then. Things have been quiet. Knock on wood.”
