ABILENE, Texas — According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Communications Director, Jeremy Desel both Middleton and Robertson prison units are under lockdown.
Desel says there are three phases:
Medical Restriction, Medical Isolation, and then Precautionary lockdown.
"Precautionary lockdowns occur at any unit that has a positive COVID test of either an employee or an offender and that lockdown occurs for 14 days from the day of that positive test" said Desel.
According to Desel, if another positive case comes in the lockdown will be extended.
"Thats literally the most we can do as far as limiting the movement and providing the closest thing to maximum social distancing we can do in a correctional setting", said Desel.
Desel says there are currently 19 units in Texas that have been tested at 100% and the Middelton unit is one of them. Desel says when looking at the numbers it's also important to factor in recoveries.
"At Middleton currently there are 229 offenders who have medically recovered from COVID and at the Robertson unit nearby there are 64 offenders who have medically recovered from COVID and those people no longer appear in those active case counts." said Desel.