The Missouri Department of Corrections is extending its suspension of visiting at prisons through May 14 due to the ongoing coronavirus emergency.
The suspension of visits began March 12.
DOC officials have worked with vendors to help provide free weekly communication with offenders, according to a news release.
Starting today, JPay, the company providing email communications in DOC facilities, will begin providing one free email stamp per week for each offender. The credited stamp will replenish each week. This is in addition to the four free stamps JPay already provides each month.
On March 23, Securus, the company providing offender phone services in DOC facilities began offering two free 10-minute phone calls per week for each offender. These free calls will continue until further notice.
Five cases of COVID-19 have been reported among DOC staff across Missouri.
A staff member at Algoa Correctional Center in Jefferson City tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday but had been on leave and hadn't been in the facility for weeks.
The previous cases were reported March 27, March 30, April 2 and April 3, occurred in northwestern Missouri, Jefferson City and Kansas City.
"We did have one offender test positive for COVID-19 while already hospitalized with other medical conditions," Pojmann said. "He has since tested negative twice and remains hospitalized with other conditions. He has not returned to a Missouri prison."
Pojmann said some steps DOC has taken to keep COVID-19 out of its facilities and prepare to contain a potential outbreak include restricting offender movement and group sizes; manufacture and distribution of face coverings for staff and offenders; suspending volunteer and re-entry partner programs; suspending offender transfers among facilities; screening of all staff and others entering any facility or other corrections property with temperature checks; around-the-clock on-site medical care with testing available at every prison; isolation cells, wings and units identified for use, if needed, at every prison; and isolation of offenders showing signs of communicable diseases.