Aerial shot of the Golden Grove Correctional Facility on St. Croix. By. ERNICE GILBERT FOR VI CONSORTIUM
ST. CROIX — Bureau of Corrections officials have sent home to quarantine five corrections officers employed at the Golden Grove Correctional Facility on St. Croix, the Consortium has learned. B.O.C. spokesman Winthrop Maduro confirmed the matter, telling the Consortium, "The persons on St. Croix were told to go home and self-quarantine after they reported coming into contact while off-duty with persons who tested positive for COVID- 19."
The Consortium had sought a response from the bureau after it said in its release revealing a Covid-19 outbreak at the Alexander A. Farrelly Criminal Complex in St. Thomas, that St. Croix employees and inmates would not be tested because no one as of Tuesday had tested positive for the virus.
On Wednesday, asked whether the five employees would be tested, Mr. Maduro said, "They are encouraged to take all precautions."
Mr. Maduro pointed the Consortium to the release the bureau issued Tuesday, which he said provides details on steps the bureau is taking to help contain the spread on St. Thomas, and prevent a possible outbreak at the St. Croix facility. "BOC is working collaboratively with the CDC, DOH, V.I.P.D., the V.I. courts, and the criminal justice community at large to mitigate the introduction and spread of the coronavirus at any BOC facility. BOC will update the community as more information becomes available," read the release.
The release also stated that B.O.C. had placed the correctional facility in St. Thomas on lockdown, would stop accepting inmates, and would not release anyone "until all COVID-19 cases at the facility have been cleared."
What remains unclear is whether the bureau has the capacity to safely house and quarantine the infected inmates in St. Thomas.
