The coronavirus has now infected employees at Miami’s Federal Detention Center

County, state and now federal — the ranks of employees, and the inmates they guard across South Florida correctional facilities, are continuing to contract the novel coronavirus.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons is finally acknowledging that at least two employees at the Miami Federal Detention Center have tested positive for COVID-19, according to its public coronavirus tracking website. A union official said Monday that a third officer at the Downtown Miami facility has also tested positive, and more are awaiting test results.

The official, Jose Rojas, has been openly critical of how the Bureau of Prisons has handled the coronavirus crisis. He said officers were not allowed to wear masks while on duty until April 8, and the department continues to transport inmates from facility to facility, elevating the risk of spreading the highly contagious virus.

“They’re lying about the numbers they are posting on their website,” said Rojas, the Southeast regional vice president of the corrections council of the American Federation of Government Employees. “They won’t want to make themselves look bad.”

With crowded cells and dorms that make social distancing nearly impossible, fluctuating populations and often unsanitary conditions, correctional facilities across the nation have been particularly susceptible to the highly contagious virus.

As with correctional institutions across the country, the Bureau of Prisons has not escaped the rapid spread of the coronavirus. As of Monday morning, the bureau has acknowledged 352 inmates and 189 staffers have tested positive — and 10 inmates have died.

No inmates at Miami’s Federal Detention Center or the Federal Correctional Institution in South Miami-Dade have tested positive, but it’s unclear how many inmates have actually been tested.

The federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana, has been particularly hard hit — five inmates have died, prompting a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons confirmed Monday that it has released more than 900 inmates and placed them on home confinement under a series of orders by Attorney General William Barr that are designed to limit the spread of the coronavirus in federal correctional facilities.

The BOP said it cannot break down how many inmates have been released by state or by facility. But sources have told the Miami Herald that some inmates have been released from FCI-Miami and FCI-Coleman in Florida and placed on home confinement under the supervision of U.S. probation officers.

Barr issued his order because the BOP was “experiencing significant levels of infection at several of our facilities,” including FCI Oakdale in Louisiana, FCI Danbury in Connecticut and FCI Elkton in Ohio.

“We have to move with dispatch in using home confinement, where appropriate, to move vulnerable inmates out of these institutions,” Barr said in a memo dated April 3.

At Florida state and county correctional facilities, officers and inmates alike have been gripped by fear of the virus, and also hampered by a lack of masks and cleaning supplies.

The Florida Department of Corrections on Monday morning reported 44 staffers and 36 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19. Thirty-four of those inmates live at a privately run prison, Blackwater River Correctional Facility, in the Florida Panhandle.

In Miami-Dade County jails, which house over 3,000 inmates, most of them awaiting trial, 40 staffers have now tested positive for the coronavirus. That’s up from 22 early on Friday.

Only one inmate has tested positive, according to the county. He remains in medical isolation at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Another TGK inmate, Michael Maldonado, told the Miami Herald by phone that the sick inmate came from the Metro West Correctional Center. Maldonado said he fed the sick inmate at TGK through a cell flap for three or four days.

“I had no masks. It wasn’t until April 4 or 5th that they gave us masks,” said Maldonado, who said he himself is now suffering from a severe headache, coughing and aches. “I’m sick now. I have symptoms. They refuse to give me a test.”

Miami Herald staff writer Jay Weaver contributed to this report.

This story was originally published April 13, 2020 at 12:46 PM.