MONTGOMERY, Alabama — The Alabama Department of Corrections on Monday announced the deaths of three additional incarcerated people who tested positive for COVID-19 before death.
Those deaths bring the state’s total to 57 incarcerated people. ADOC on Jan. 15 announced that an employee at the Bullock Correctional Facility died after testing positive for COVID-19, bringing workers’ deaths after a positive test result to three. The department in the statement didn’t identify the worker who died, however.
Ronny McGowan, 32, died on Oct. 6 after he was exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 that same day was taken to a local hospital, where he died, according to ADOC’s statement. An autopsy showed that he tested positive for coronavirus when he died, according to the statement.
Edward Locke, 76, died Jan. 14 at the Kilby Correctional Facility while in medical isolation in the prison’s infirmary. Locke tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 26 and was taken to a local hospital, where he remained until Jan. 8, when he was taken to Kilby prison for “comfort care,” according to the statement.
Earnest O’Neal Croom, 74, who had multiple pre-existing medical conditions, was taken from Bullock Correctional Facility to a local hospital on Dec. 24 after showing symptoms of COVID-19, where he tested positive for coronavirus and remained until his death on Jan. 22.
ADOC also announced that eight additional incarcerated people and 19 prison workers have tested positive for COVID-19. A total of 1,315 incarcerated people in state prisons, and 918 workers, have tested positive for coronavirus, according to ADOC.
Of the state’s approximately 25,000 incarcerated people, 14,627 had been tested for COVID-19 as of Jan. 22, according to ADOC’s dashboard.
ADOC’s most recent monthly statistical report shows that 13 incarcerated people had been released from state custody through medical furloughs from Jan. 1, 2020 through November 2020.
