COLUMBUS – Governor Mike DeWine says the state is examining which nonviolent inmates could be released to create more space in state prisons after confirming that 10 inmates at two prisons and 27 staff members at four prisons have now tested positive for the coronavirus.
DeWine announced Monday that five inmates at the Marion Correctional Institution and five more at Pickaway Correctional tested positive for the virus.
He is also sending 26 members of the Ohio National Guard to the Elkton Federal Correctional Institution in Columbiana County to help where seven inmates have tested positive and three inmates have died from the disease.
He and Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman have also asked the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to stop sending new prisoners to the facility.
“To be clear, this is not a state facility, it is a federal prison, but, this prison is in Ohio. Ohio citizens work there, and their families live here,” DeWine said.
The guard will be focused on providing medical assistance in the prison’s infirmary with non-COVID-19 cases and with patients who are showing symptoms of the disease, DeWine said. They will not be armed and they will not provide security.
The soldiers, who all work in the medical field, will have N-95 respirators for protection while they work to augment the current prison medical staff.
The guard will will bring equipment and ambulances with them and will prepared to help transport seriously ill patients to hospitals in the event of a surge of sick inmates, he said.