Federal facility reports increase in COVID-19 cases

The Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City reported a significant increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases over the past week.

The center, which ranks eighth out of 112 Bureau of Prisons facilities in confirmed inmate COVID-19 cases, reported 50 inmates and three staff members tested positive for COVID-19 as of Wednesday. Eighteen inmates have recovered, and one inmate, 56-year-old Douglas Allen Reid, has died.

The 53 cases at the FTC, which is in the 73012 ZIP Code, account for the 40-case spike reported in the area on May 21, according to the Oklahoma City Emergency Management Office. That makes the 73012 ZIP Code the seventh highest with the number of COVID-19 cases in the state.

The Bureau of Prisons announced May 7 it would expand its rapid testing capabilities at detention and quarantine sites, including the transfer center in Oklahoma City. The center is one of three quarantine sites where newly sentenced inmates are tested.

“The BOP has begun additional testing of asymptomatic inmates to assist in slowing transmissions within a correctional setting,” the bureau’s COVID-19 resource page states. “As such, our data reflects an increase in the number of COVID-19 positive tests. ... The BOP is able to better utilize this information for the management of an outbreak at the relevant, affected facility.”

Officials said the Oklahoma City facility is following bureau guidelines to slow the spread of the virus. That includes suspending all social visits for its 1,362 inmates.

Kris Steele, director of criminal justice advocacy group Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform, said the increase in cases was inevitable at a facility like the one in Oklahoma City. He said all federal and state corrections facilities should stop inmate movement until the virus dies down. He also supports releasing as many inmates who aren’t a danger to society as possible.

“COVID-19, in both the state and federal system, has exposed many cracks in our social safety nets,” Steele said. “It has shown that prisons are not only largely ineffective at deterring crime but they’re also ineffective at keeping communities safe. It’s evident that they also pose a public health risk. So, I think at both the state and federal levels, officials should be working to reduce the prison populations to manageable levels.”

The Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City has not responded to The Oklahoman's request for comment.