NC inmates tested for coronavirus before release, but only since Christmas

The survey also gave North Carolina marks for a providing hotel rooms to inmates who test positive so they can quarantine after release. The state is one of only three to do so, according to the report, which described a stressed re-entry system as groups that work with former prisoners struggle to deal with the impacts of the pandemic.

It's not clear why the North Carolina Department of Public Safety waited 10 months into a global pandemic to make release testing part of its standard protocol. Spokesman John Bull noted testing supplies were tight in the first few months of the crisis and that a robust testing protocol was put in place in more recent months.

Roughly 12,000 offenders are now tested each month, Bull said, in a system that houses about 29,000 people.

"At this point, North Carolina’s offender testing regimen is aggressive and proactive," Bull said in an email. "Prisons has conducted more than 89,000 COVID-19 tests on offenders."

Routine testing just prior to release was implemented shortly before Christmas, he said. Prisoners are also tested upon arrival and ahead of transfers, in addition to other times, he said.

"Offenders who are released are given medical isolation and quarantine information, and we work with them on approving a transition plan to include helping ensure they have a place where they may safely quarantine," Bull said in his email.

The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news outlet, keyed in its report on a North Carolina woman named Nacola McNeil who spent the last 30 days of her sentence in a halfway house. A few days into her stay, the project reported, she tested positive for coronavirus.

“I was sharing a room with a bunch of ladies," McNeil was quoted as saying. "By the grace of God, no one else got sick."