An Oklahoma county jail has been linked to multiple coronavirus outbreaks in the federal Bureau of Prisons.
The Grady County Jail has seen several cases of inmates before they were transferred to federal prisons, where they spread coronavirus to the masses.
One of those cases was Tiger King star Joe Exotic, who was moved to Grady on his way to federal prison when he was convicted of murder-for-hire to attempt to kill Carole Baskin.
Joe was moved with eight other prisoners from Grady to Federal Medical Center in Forth Worth, Texas, and within a week the Texas prison confirmed its first case of coronavirus. A month later more than 600 prisoners were infected and 12 died.
Ryan Burk, a corrections officer at a prison in Waseca, Minnesota said a bus of 22 female prisoners from Grady was transferred to his prison, and 21 of the women tested positive for COVID-19.
According to VICE News, an internal Bureau of Prisons email in August warned, “Should you receive inmates who have been housed in Grady County (OK) Jail, it would be a good idea to assume they are positive for COVID-19.”
Also in the email, the senior official warned that there were rumors that Grady was “transferring inmates with Tylenol or another over the counter type medication to temporarily reduce temperatures of outgoing inmates in an effort to circumvent COVID screening procedures.”
Kevin Lasley, a senior corrections officer at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, told VICE News that his prison received five inmates from Grady and they were all positive for coronavirus. Those inmates said they were given Tylenol to pass a temperature check.
“This hillbilly county jail is jeopardizing our staff all over the agency,” Lasley said. “It’s ridiculous. The Marshals need to be held accountable. Whoever is running that operation down in Oklahoma City, they need to get their sh*t together.”
