An Alabama inmate who died on Aug. 1 tested positive for COVID-19 after his death, the Alabama Department of Public Health announced Friday, and testing data from the department shows there was an outbreak of the disease in the prison around the time he was taken to a hospital.
According to the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC), Scottie Johnson, 45, who had preexisting medical conditions, was taken from Bullock Correctional Facility to a local hospital on July 31, “for care ostensibly unrelated to COVID-19.” He tested negative for COVID-19 at the hospital, ADOC said in a statement, but tested positive during an autopsy.
In just more than two weeks time, after Johnson was taken to the hospital, 41 inmates and two workers at Bullock prison also tested positive for COVID-19, according to the department’s regular COVID-19 updates. Another inmate at Bullock just recently tested positive as well, the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) announced Friday.
Wanda Payton, Johnson’s mother, told APR on Friday that she last spoke to her son by phone on Monday, July 27. He was taken to the hospital four days later. Both her sons were born with severe allergies, Payton said, and the prison kept the drug epinephrine on hand in the event he had a severe allergic reaction, as he had once during high school.
“He was saying his throat felt scratchy,” Payton said, adding that her son said it felt like it did when he had the severe reaction in high school.
She told him to go to the prison’s infirmary and get help, Payton said. Although he called her almost every day, she didn’t hear from him for the rest of the week. She was going to call the prison on Saturday but said a chaplain called her that morning before she could.
“He said ‘I hate to tell you this, but we just lost your son, Scottie’ and I just went into shock,” Payton said. “I told him, ‘what do you mean?’ and I just started screaming and hollering.”
Eric Johnson, Scottie’s brother, told APR that he’s concerned about what happened between the time his mother talked to him that Monday, and when he was taken to the hospital on Friday.
“Between that Monday and Friday he had to show some symptoms,” Johnson said. “I hope they would just let him sit there and pass out and have a hard time breathing before they decided to rush him to the hospital.”
Subsequent questions to ADOC late Friday evening weren’t immediately responded to. APR will update the story once those responses are sent.
A COVID-19 update from ADOC on Aug. 11 announced that 22 inmates at Bullock prison had recently tested positive for COVID-19. In the weeks prior to that announcement, but after Johnson was sent to a hospital, another inmate and two workers at the prison also tested positive for COVID-19. On August 18, ADOC announced that an additional 18 inmates at Bullock tested positive for the disease.
During the months of August and September, there were confirmed coronavirus cases among 43 inmates and 9 workers at Bullock prison. So far in October, another 5 workers at the prison have tested positive for coronavirus.
Since the pandemic began, 453 inmates and 427 prison workers have tested positive for COVID-19. Johnson’s death brings the total number of inmates who have died after testing positive for coronavirus to 29. Two prison workers died after testing positive for the disease.
