One quarter of the inmates and 14 staff members at the state’s maximum security prison currently have Covid and one of the inmates died of the virus early Thursday morning.
According to a news release from the Iowa Department of Corrections, Mark Steven Bailey was transferred several days ago from the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison to University Hospitals in Iowa City, where he died likely due to complications related to Covid-19. Bailey, who was 63, had been in prison since 2007, serving a 20-year sentence for two second degree robbery convictions in Polk County.
Bailey is the 12th inmate to die after contracting Covid in the state’s prison system. In November, staff members at the prisons in Clarida and Mitchellville died with Covid.