Inmates in a cell at California State Prison, Sacramento, near Folsom, CA. One inmate and five employees in the state's massive prison system have tested positive for coronavirus, leading to pressure on corrections officials to begin releasing some of California's 123,000 convicts early
By Kristine Phillips - USA TODAY
Laura Hurwitz’s father, an inmate in a low-security federal prison in Butner, North Carolina, is 79 and in frail health. He survived multiple heart attacks and several bouts with cancer – lung, prostate, throat and nasal.
He also has severe emphysema, high blood pressure, chronic sinusitis, and lung and respiratory issues. Hurwitz said her father is highly vulnerable to dying of COVID-19 and should be moved out of the prison’s close quarters. But whether her father, who has more than three years left in his sentence for bank robbery, can get out is unclear. And Hurwitz, still waiting for answers, is in panic.
“By some stroke of miracle, he is still alive. Clearly with the current pandemic and the level of escalating cases of the virus from the outside, I can only imagine. And it’s hard for me to let myself go there, when I let myself think about what is happening on the inside,” Hurwitz said.
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