The Wall Street Journal - 07.04.2020

A6| Tuesday, April 7, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

More than 1,800 inmates are housed at the Oakdale federal correctional institution compound. The outbreak so far has been confined to one of the prisons there.

PICTOMETRY

since last year, was considered

interested in persuading the

White House to give him the

nod for the position perma-

nently, defense officials said.

Hours earlier, at a press

briefing about the coronavirus

outbreak, Mr. Trump described

Mr. Modly’s word choice as

“rough” and said he would in-

vestigate further, adding he

had heard positive things

about both Capt. Crozier and

Mr. Modly.

Mr. Modly relieved Capt.

Crozier of duty last week after

the carrier commander wrote a

memo demanding more assis-

tance to address the coronavi-

rus outbreak, and distributed

the memo to others. It quickly

became public and drew wide-

spread media attention, draw-

ing Mr. Modly’s ire.

In the address to the crew

of the Roosevelt, Mr. Modly re-

ferred disparagingly to Capt.

Crozier. “If he didn’t think, in

my opinion, that this informa-

tion wasn’t going to get out

into the public, in this informa-

tion age we live in, then he was

either too naive or too stupid

to be a commanding officer of

a ship like this,” he said over

the Roosevelt’s public address

system.

“The alternative is he did

this on purpose, which is a seri-

mander of duty.

“Let me be clear, I do not

think Captain Brett Crozier is

naive nor stupid,” Mr. Modly’s

latest statement read.

Mr. Modly had spent the

previous days defending his

decision to fire Capt. Crozier

in multiple interviews with

news outlets, public state-

ments and a letter to the edi-

tor in which he pointedly de-

fended his decision.

His apology came under

pressure from Defense Secre-

tary Mark Esper to make

amends for his tone and tenor,

according to people familiar

with the discussions, and con-

sisted of the one-paragraph

statement late Monday.

Despite the apology, Mr.

Modly’s future was considered

to be in doubt. Mr. Modly, who

as acting secretary has been

the top civilian Navy official

ContinuedfromPageOne

medical workers arrived

March 31. They began handing

out paper masks to some in-

mates, and the doctors last

week started regularly check-

ing temperatures, something

prisons officials said is now

being done nationally.

In response to questions

from The Wall Street Journal,

the bureau sent a four-page re-

ply broadly outlining the mea-

sures it has taken at Oakdale

and throughout its 122 facili-

ties nationwide. “It is our

highest priority to continue to

do everything we can to miti-

gate the spread of Covid-19 in

our facilities,” the bureau said.

But it didn’t answer some

specific questions, including

why Mr. Melder, who escorted

Mr. Jones to the hospital,

wasn’t given a mask and was

told to return to work, accord-

ing to union officials. Those

details are part of a lawsuit

filed last month against the

Trump administration on be-

half of four federal corrections

employees belonging to the

A Louisiana prison guard

sat alongside a sick inmate for

more than an hour inside a

van and his hospital room,

told by a supervisor he didn’t

need a mask despite the pris-

oner’s severe cough and other

telltale signs of Covid-19.

Within 10 days, on March

28, the 49-year-old inmate,

Patrick Jones, was dead from

the coronavirus. The officer,

Aubrey Melder, was back at

work, having been told days

earlier to return, without

quarantining, to his duties in-

side the low-security prison in

Oakdale, a lawyer for the

union representing prisons

employees said.

The prison, 200 miles west

of New Orleans, has emerged

as a focal point of the corona-

virus pandemic inside the na-

tion’s lockups. Five prisoners

have died there from the dis-

ease, the most of any federal

prison. At least 25 inmates

and 21 workers have tested

positive, including seven pris-

oners who are in intensive

care and four on ventilators;

two employees are also hospi-

talized, according to data from

officials at the facility. The ac-

tual figure is almost certainly

higher as there is little testing.

Interviews with inmates and

their families, corrections offi-

cers and local officials show a

prison under siege by an invisi-

ble enemy. Inside cells holding

six men each, feverish, cough-

ing inmates at times weren’t

separated from their healthy

cellmates, but instead lay in

their bunks an arm’s length

away. Some inmates fashioned

masks from their own clothing.

“Our sentences have turned

into death sentences,” Sterling

Rivers, a 32-year-old from

Tennessee serving time at

Oakdale for a drug conspiracy

conviction said in an interview.

The prison has run out of

tests, union officials said.

State health officials have ad-

vised that anyone showing

symptoms should be consid-

ered to be infected. Three-

quarters of the 980 inmates

are quarantined, the union

says. Running out of space to

hold them, officials con-

structed at least six tents in

the recreation yard in recent

days to house inmates who

have been symptom-free for

two weeks after possible expo-

sure, prison officials said.

The crisis at Oakdale fore-

shadows what has started to

play out at other jails and pris-

ons across the country, where

2.2 million individuals are held,

including more than 175,000 in

the federal system. Health ex-

perts have long warned that

the cramped quarters and of-

ten unhygienic living condi-

tions give contagion free rein.

Mr. Melder, who hasn’t expe-

rienced symptoms, declined to

comment through a representa-

tive. Within the federal system,

inmates and their guards say

the unique risks they face as a

result of tight spaces, short

staffing and strained health-

care systems are intensified by

a lack of access to protective

masks and other gear, faulty

thermometers and insufficient

cleaning supplies.

Adding to the challenge,

nearly 5,000 inmates in the fed-

eral system are over 65, accord-

ing to the Bureau of Prisons,

putting them at greater risk of

becoming more severely ill with

Covid-19, experts say.

President Trump declared a

state of emergency concerning

the virus on March 13. The Bu-

reau of Prisons said it imposed

“enhanced modified opera-

tions” at Oakdale on March 21.

That meant limiting inmates’

movement and rotating them

out of their cells in small

groups for things like showers

and meals, the bureau said.

At Oakdale, a team of eight

American Federation of Gov-

ernment Employees union;

they are demanding hazard-

ous-duty pay.

Attorney General William

Barr, who has said the prisons

are operating under a “rigor-

ous set of protocols,” on Fri-

day ordered officials to speed

release to home confinement

eligible, high-risk inmates at

Oakdale and two other prisons

hard hit by the virus. The bu-

reau said it was “urgently re-

viewing all inmates” to deter-

mine who could be released.

At Oakdale, prisoners and

corrections officials said those

measures were haphazardly

imposed and came too late.

“Pray this don’t get in your

joint,” said Corey Trammel, a

union representative who

works there.

Outside, family members

are unable to get answers

about their loved ones. Inside,

inmates are pleading to be re-

leased.

“The way they got us living

here, I emailed my loved ones

today and let them know that I

apologize for everything that I

caused them, told them to tell

my kids that I love them,” said

Rodney Harrison, a 39-year-old

Oakdale inmate who is months

away from completing his sen-

tence for a drug conviction.

Mr. Melder isn’t the only

guard to have returned to

work after being exposed, offi-

cers who work there said.

Early on, some new inmates

were put into cells with poten-

tially sick ones, they said.

Common areas like bathrooms,

each shared by a hundred or

more men, still aren’t being

frequently cleaned with

bleach. “There’s guys huffing

and spitting in there and urine

on the floor,” said Mr. Rivers.

Inmates said they have

tried to clean their cells, but

that the prison wouldn’t give

them bleach because it can be

lethal if mixed with other

cleaners. Officials at the bu-

reau said that they provide in-

mates with “cleaning products

as needed to clean their cells,”

and that it sent three memos

to inmates “reminding them of

the importance of good hand

washing and hygiene.”

The disease’s spread has

been compounded by other

pressures. Guards say they are

hesitant to report symptoms

because they don’t want to

have to use sick time to quar-

antine for 14 days. Inmates say

they are reluctant because

they don’t want to go into iso-

lation or force cellmates into

quarantine.

Residents of the town of

Oakdale, population about

7,500, fear an outbreak will

spill outside the gates of the

prison complex that has long

been a source of employment.

“Most of Oakdale has come

in contact with someone that’s

worked there, whether it’s at

the grocery store, or the gas

station or whatever,” said

Mayor Gene Paul. The wife and

daughter of Mr. Melder work

for him at city hall. Mr. Paul

said he sent them home upon

learning that Mr. Melder had

been exposed.

The complex consists of

two minimum-security prisons

and a prison camp, which has

dormitory-style living arrange-

ments; more than 1,800 in-

mates are housed at the

Oakdale federal correctional

institution compound. The

outbreak so far has been con-

fined to one of the prisons,

FCI Oakdale I.

Virus Puts a Prison Under Siege

Guards, inmates at

Louisiana facility say

tight quarters, lack of

caution led to crisis

Agency Scrambles

To Stem the Spread

Eight inmates had died in

federal prisons from the new

coronavirus as of Sunday, in-

cluding three at a low-security

prison in Elkton, Ohio.

Nationwide in the federal

system, another 138 inmates

and 59 employees had tested

positive, according to figures

from the Bureau of Prisons,

which operates Oakdale and all

federal lockups. State and local

detention facilities are experi-

encing similar struggles.

The Bureau of Prisons, criti-

cized for weeks by staff and

inmates as slow to respond to

the coronavirus, said it has

been implementing a plan to

stem the spread in phases that

have included suspending visi-

tation, limiting transfers of in-

mates between prisons and

holding newly arriving prison-

ers in quarantine for 14 days.

On April 1, bureau officials

took the rare step of imposing

a nationwide policy of keeping

inmates in their cells and quar-

ters all day with very limited

exceptions.

‘Pray this don’t get

in your joint,’ says a

union representative

who works there.

WASHINGTON—U.S. spy

agencies, already challenged in

their missions relating to for-

eign-election meddling and

North Korea’s weapons pro-

grams, and by a U.S. president

who sometimes dismisses

their work, face a new obsta-

cle: the coronavirus.

Thousands of personnel at

major intelligence agencies, in-

cluding the Central Intelli-

gence Agency and the National

Security Agency, which con-

ducts electronic eavesdrop-

ping, are working in staggered

shifts. In any given week, as

much as half of their work-

force is sent home while the

other half reports to worksites,

according to current and for-

mer U.S. intelligence officials.

Most government agencies

have offered “maximum tele-

work flexibilities” to all em-

ployees who can do their jobs

remotely, under White House

instructions. But aside from a

handful of the most senior of-

ficials, intelligence personnel

typically don’t have the capac-

ity to access and analyze clas-

sified material at home.

U.S. intelligence officials,

like Americans across the coun-

try, are taking steps to enforce

social distancing at work, fa-

voring secure videoconferences

between offices over large in-

person meetings, the current

and former officials said.

At Liberty Crossing, the

suburban Virginia headquar-

ters of the Office of the Direc-

tor of National Intelligence,

which coordinates the work of

17 intelligence agencies, sev-

eral individuals have been con-

firmed infected with the coro-

navirus, an ODNI official said.

At Fort Meade in Mary-

land—which houses the NSA

and U.S. Cyber Command, as

well as other military and civil-

ian personnel—at least four

people have tested positive.

Gauging the impact of coro-

navirus on the vast U.S. intelli-

gence apparatus is difficult.

Agency representatives declined

to provide many details, citing

concerns about giving too much

information to adversaries.

The agencies, whose work

spans the globe and deals with

potential threats ranging from

terrorism to climate change,

are prioritizing “mission criti-

cal” activities, a congressional

official said. For the NSA and

Cyber Command, for example,

that means protecting the

2020 election from interfer-

ence, though coronavirus has

rapidly ascended as an area of

focus, a former senior intelli-

gence official said.

Still, the pandemic is com-

plicating the spy agencies’ two

main roles: collecting informa-

tion and analyzing what it

means, the current and former

officials said.

“There’s no question that

there are considerable impacts

on the IC [intelligence commu-

nity] and the conduct of its mis-

sion,” said retired Air Force Lt.

Gen. James Clapper, who was

director of national intelligence

under former President Obama.

BYWARRENP.STROBEL

ANDDUSTINVOLZ

Spies Can’t

Come in

From the

Cold

BySadie Gurman,

Zusha Elinson

andDeanna Paul

ous violation” of military law,

he said.

In recordings of Mr. Modly

remarks, sailors can be heard in

the background jeering and

shouting disapproval in re-

sponse to Mr. Modly’s criticism

of Capt. Crozier.

In his apology, Mr. Modly re-

visited that point.

“I believe, precisely because

he is not naive and stupid, that

he sent his alarming email with

the intention of getting it into

the public domain in an effort

to draw public attention to the

situation on his ship,” Mr.

Modly said in the Monday

statement. “I apologize for any

confusion this choice of words

may have caused. I also want to

apologize directly to Captain

Crozier, his family, and the en-

tire crew of the Teddy Roose-

velt for any pain my remarks

may have caused.”

Mr. Modly had traveled to

Guam over the weekend to de-

fend his decision to remove

Capt. Crozier to the sailors of

the nuclear-powered aircraft

carrier. Capt. Crozier last week

drew cheers and applause from

sailors as he walked off the

ship’s gangplank last week for

the last time.

On Monday, Rep. Adam

Smith (D., Wash.), the chairman

of the House Armed Services

Committee, called for Mr.

Modly’s removal. “His decision

to relieve Capt. Crozier was at

best an overreaction to the ex-

traordinary steps the captain

took to protect his crew,” Mr.

Smith said.

Mr. Modly’s remarks to crew

members were peppered with

profanity, according to a re-

cording and descriptions by

those on board, relatives and

others, with Mr. Modly saying

that sailors were expected to

“keep their shit together and

take care of each other.”

At another point, Mr. Modly,

addressing fears over the virus,

said: “If the ship was in combat

and there were hypersonic mis-

siles coming at it, you’d be

pretty f------ scared too.”

Some crew members consid-

ered the remarks by the acting

secretary to be inappropriate.

“All of our jaws are on the floor

right now. He just made the PR

situation a billion times worse,”

one sailor aboard the Roosevelt

messaged to a family member

after Mr. Modly’s comments.

As of Monday, 173 of the ap-

proximately 5,000 members of

the crew have tested positive

for the virus.

Navy Head

Apologizes

To Captain

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, second from left, toured the hospital ship Mercy last week.

PETTY OFFICER 1ST CLASS DAVID MORA/U.S. NAVY/ASSOCIATED PRESS