As COVID-19 spreads and the number of diagnoses rise, the condition of prisons in New York State and around the country are cause for concern. Yesterday, a substantial number of prisoners and guards at Rikers Island tested positive for the coronavirus — an alarming statistic that may well rise in the coming weeks.
Now, The Daily Beast has a report of another high-profile COVID-19 case at a prison elsewhere in the state. That would be Harvey Weinstein. According to a report first published in the Niagara Gazette, Weinstein is currently in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19.
As Niagara Gazette reporter Joe Mahoney writes, Weinstein tested positive at Wende Correctional Facility, near Buffalo. Earlier today, WKBW revealed that two inmates at Wende has tested positive for COVID-19, but did not release their names.
Pilar Melendez at The Daily Beast reached out to Weinstein’s representatives for comment. Their response was inconclusive:
Juda Engelmayer, Weinstein’s spokesperson, told The Daily Beast on Sunday that “our team… has not heard anything like that yet.” Engelmayer also could not confirm if the Pulp Fiction producer was currently in isolation.
While the apparent convergence of two of the year’s biggest news stories is notable on its own, it also points to ongoing concerns about sanitary conditions within prisons.
Earlier this month, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that New York State would begin producing hand sanitizer using prison labor, a number of observers noted the irony that prisoners were not permitted to use hand sanitizer themselves. (There do seem to be ways to work around this.) How Weinstein’s diagnosis will play out remains to be seen.
Subscribe here for our free daily newsletter.
Thanks for reading InsideHook. Sign up for our daily newsletter and be in the know.
