Alaska News

Fourth Alaska inmate dies with COVID-19

A 60-year-old man incarcerated at Goose Creek Correctional Center, the site of Alaska’s biggest COVID-19 outbreak, has died while infected with the coronavirus, the Alaska Department of Corrections said Wednesday.

He was the fourth incarcerated person in Alaska to die with COVID-19, the corrections department said. His name was not released.

He’d been in prison since 2015, and was charged with sexual assault, sexual abuse of a minor and assault.

The inmate had underlying health conditions and had been hospitalized since Dec. 2, according to the corrections department, which said he died Tuesday “from complications related” to the illness caused by the coronavirus.

A massive coronavirus outbreak at the prison has been the largest discrete outbreak of the pandemic in Alaska, according to health officials. As of Tuesday, more than 1,000 of the roughly 1,300 prisoners at the facility had tested positive for the coronavirus over the course of the outbreak.

Michelle Theriault Boots

Michelle Theriault Boots is a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. She focuses on in-depth stories about the intersection of public policy and Alaskans' lives. Before joining the ADN in 2012, she worked at daily newspapers up and down the West Coast and earned a master's degree from the University of Oregon.

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