The number of COVID-19 cases has spiked in recent weeks at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a women’s prison that houses inmates who are pregnant as well as a nursery program for newborns. As of April 16th, 108 inmates at the facility had COVID-19—about one in five of the 529 women currently residing there. That’s up 23% from April 7th, when there were 88 inmates with COVID-19.
“What we were hearing from people there is they were just terrified because there was such an uptick in cases,” said Serena Liguori, executive director for New Hour for Women and Children—Long Island, a group that supports women and families impacted by incarceration..
Five mothers and five infants are currently in the nursery program at Bedford Hills. One mother and two of the babies have COVID-19, but all are asymptomatic, according to the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS). Another mother and child recently had the virus and recovered. The agency added that only one pregnant woman is incarcerated at Bedford Hills right now, but is COVID-negative as of April 19th.
The nursery program allows babies to stay with their mothers for up to 18 months.
“Women have said they’re worried that if they develop COVID-like symptoms they’ll simply be locked in their cells and isolated alone with very little support and that is actually what we’ve seen happen throughout the last year,” said Liguori, who also co-runs the Justice 4 Women Task Force. It facilitates a biweekly meeting of family members of women who are incarcerated as well as nurses, attorneys and other individuals with knowledge of what’s going on inside local jails and prisons.
Most babies who get COVID-19 have mild or no symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But some kids experience a rare and occasionally severe condition known as Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). Pregnant women are at higher risk than the general population for severe illness from COVID-19.
“The same New York state Department of Health and CDC guidelines are followed for those in the nursery regarding testing, isolating and contact-tracing,” DOCCS said. “The babies remain with their mothers while in isolation and are seen by medical staff twice a day to monitor for any symptoms should they arise.”
DOCCS did not provide further details but Liguori said she has heard of mothers and babies at Bedford Hills who needed quarantine and were placed in trailers typically reserved for family reunification visits. “I hope that’s the case,” she added. She said she doesn't want the nursery program at Bedford Hills, intended to facilitate bonding between mother and baby, to be discontinued.
As of last month, there were 32,384 people incarcerated in state prisons. The Cuomo administration has allowed for some early releases during the pandemic: about 800 people who had been locked up for violating parole and another 2,200 people convicted of nonviolent crimes had been released from state prisons as of October.
Coronavirus transmission has remained a perpetual issue in state-run facilities. In January, the Correctional Association of New York determined that there were outbreaks in 36 of the 52 state prisons.
Governor Cuomo started the state vaccine rollout with heavy restrictions on access for incarcerated people, and the policy wasn't changed until a judge ruled in late March that all people in local jails and state prisons had to have access. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that vaccination can lead to breast milk carrying antibodies against the coronavirus, potentially passing immunity from mother to child.
So far, 83 of the 529 women being held at Bedford Hills have received a first dose of the Moderna vaccine and 49 have received the second dose. DOCCS clinics offering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have paused distribution, following guidance from the state Department of Health and CDC. It’s unclear whether that pause has impacted Bedford Hills.
Advocates say Cuomo should do more to reduce the prison population. “[The Bedford Hills outbreak] just shows how COVID-19 in detention facilities is not a moot issue,” said Sophie Gebreselassie, an attorney with the Prisoners’ Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society, who helped facilitate the release of pregnant inmates from Bedford Hills last year. “This is a live issue and we still need to be actively pursuing release and decarceration. I don’t think that’s been sufficient at any New York state facility.”
It’s unclear what sparked the current outbreak at Bedford Hills, but DOCCS speculated that it was brought in with one of the babies in the nursery. Vertical transmission of coronavirus between pregnant mothers and their fetuses is considered rare by the CDC.
“Based on contact tracing, it is believed that the spread originated from a baby who had been delivered while the mother was in the custody of the local jail,” DOCCS said. “The mother delivered the baby while COVID-positive, recovered and was transferred to Bedford Hills.”
Regardless of how the virus got into the prison, it is a reminder of how the virus preys on this congregate setting. Liguori and Gebreselassie both noted that the prison sees a lot of traffic because it serves as an intake hub for women being transferred from county jails to other correctional facilities
A DOCCS spokesperson added in a statement, “Community spread has been a driving factor behind the spread of COVID-19," and pointed out that New York prisons rank low relative to other states when it comes to the COVID-19 case rate—the number of positive tests per 100,000 people. But since the start of April, case rates have been dropping in the Westchester County community—home to Bedford Hills—and across the state, while positives rise at Bedford Hills.
Editor’s note: After publication, DOCCS sent over additional details about the coronavirus cases in Bedford Hills Correctional Facility’s nursery program.
