CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and local Preston County officials have been told no prisoner testing positive for Coronavirus will be transported to FCI Hazelton in Preston County.
On May 6, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons confirmed that prior to any transfer, all prisoners would be tested with point-of-care technology. Any prisoner with a positive test result would not be transferred to FCI Hazelton.
“I am grateful that we are making progress and will continue to work to ensure that the Bureau of Prisons lives up to this promise to West Virginia,” Morrisey said in a press release. “While much work remains, a concrete promise from the feds to test and operate under CDC guidance and not transfer any positive testing prisoners represents a step forward.
"We cannot and must not replicate the mistakes that plagued the Gilmer transfer. We must keep West Virginia safe."
Morrisey said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be making additional tests and rapid testing processing machines available to increase the Bureau’s test kits nationally.
On May 5, Morrisey joined U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito and Congressman David B. McKinley in calling upon the federal government to better equip the two in-state prisons currently in use as COVID-19 quarantine sites for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons after an inmate transferred to FCI Gilmer has tested positive despite assurances from the Bureau of Prisons.