As coronavirus spreads rapidly through the Marion Correctional Institution, making the central Ohio prison apparently the nation’s top hotspot for COVID-19, advocates for both corrections officers and inmates say the state is not doing enough to protect either. Through Monday, 1,950 of about 2,500 prisoners at the Marion prison have tested positive for COVID-19, along with 109 staff members, about a third of the prison’s workforce. One guard, John Dawson of Mansfield, Ohio, has died, as has one inmate. Another 34 prisoners have been hospitalized. The union representing 349 guards and other employees at the Marion prison is concerned that corrections officers and others at the prison who had been sent home after testing positive for coronavirus are being forced back to work as soon as three days after being deemed symptom-free.  

As coronavirus spreads rapidly through the Marion Correctional Institution, making the central Ohio prison apparently the nation&rsquo;s top hotspot for COVID-19, advocates for both corrections officers and inmates say the state is not doing enough to protect either. Through Monday, 1,950 of about 2,500 prisoners at the Marion prison have tested positive for COVID-19, along with 109 staff members, about a third of the prison&rsquo;s workforce. One guard, John Dawson of Mansfield, Ohio, has died, as has one inmate. Another 34 prisoners have been hospitalized. The union representing 349 guards and other employees at the Marion prison is concerned that corrections officers and others at the prison who had been sent home after testing positive for coronavirus are being forced back to work as soon as three days after being deemed symptom-free.&nbsp;&nbsp;

News Briefs from the Columbus Dispatch - Columbus Ohio

News Briefs from the Columbus Dispatch - Columbus Ohio

Columbus News Briefs - Columbus Dispatch

News Briefs from the Columbus Dispatch - Columbus Ohio.

News Briefs from the Columbus Dispatch - Columbus Ohio.

Austin- Marion prison becomes nation’s leading coronavirus hotspot as advocates demand action

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