A men’s prison in Crowley County east of Pueblo is battling the largest active COVID-19 outbreak among state correctional facilities. 

As many as 551 inmates have active cases at Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility, accounting for well over half of the 993 inmates housed at the prison, agency spokeswoman Annie Skinner said. Forty-five other inmates have since recovered. The outbreak was first detected Oct. 29, according to the state health department. 

The outbreak is one of eight in state correctional facilities to infect more than 100 prisoners. The two largest outbreaks at the Sterling Correctional Facility in northern Colorado and Fremont Correctional Facility near Cañon City have infected more than 700 prisoners living in each prison. The virus has spread fast in the facilities where inmates live in close quarters and social distancing is hard. 

Seven prisoners have died from the virus thus far, including four prisoners from Sterling Correctional Facility and three from Fremont Correctional Facility. Eleven inmates from across the state Department of Corrections system are hospitalized, Skinner said. 

The vast majority of inmates who have tested positive have either mild symptoms or no symptoms at all, Skinner said. 

To control the spread of the virus, Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility and 14 other facilities are taking the highest level of precautions. Prisoners in quarantined or isolated areas are not allowed outside of cells except to shower, according to the agency. The prisons have also increased cleaning protocols and required staff and inmates to wear masks. 

ACLU, Department of Corrections reach settlement over prison coronavirus protocols

The Department of Corrections faced a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, which claimed the agency was not protecting inmates medically vulnerable to the virus. The lawsuit was settled last week and requires to the agency to identify medically vulnerable people and prioritize their safe housing and provides an independent expert to help guide how those inmates will be treated, according to an ACLU news release. 

The ACLU is suing Gov. Jared Polis separately for failing to lower prison populations to reduce the spread of the virus. 

Reducing populations can help increase social distancing and slow COVID-19’s spread, said Dr. Glen Mays, chairman of the Department of Health Systems, Management & Policy at the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado. Keeping groups of prisoners together, and minimizing mixing with the rest of the population, is also a good step, he said. 

However, keeping inmates isolated to cells with limited options for interaction could cause additional risks to physical and mental health, he said.

“I would hope that we’re not seeing widespread adoption of the strategy because it’s going to be counterproductive,” he said. 

Fremont Correctional Facility inmate dies at hospital after having COVID-19 symptoms, officials report