LINCOLN- A COVID-19 outbreak at the intake facility for state prisons in Lincoln has prompted the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services to pause visits and volunteer activities and to ask county jails to hold off on sending new inmates, the department announced Tuesday.

Thirty-three inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Diagnostic and Evaluation Center, according to state data. All adult men who are sentenced to the Department of Corrections go through the facility. It also houses interstate transfers and returned parolees and escapees, among others.

People who’ve tested positive at the intake facility are isolated in housing away from other inmates to avoid spreading the coronavirus, according to corrections chief of staff Laura Strimple.

“Before, when cases increased in the community, we experienced a corresponding increase in our facilities,” Director Scott Frakes said. “It is not a surprise that we have an uptick in cases now, especially at DEC which serves as the intake facility for all male inmates who are new admits or returning to us from the community.”

The intake facility’s average daily population was about 418 between July 2020 and June 2021. That made it, on average, the most overcrowded of the state’s 10 facilities over that year, at 209% of its operational capacity and 261% of its design capacity.

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