Mt. Pleasant prison has inoculated 95 staff

The Mt. Pleasant Correctional Facility is one of the prisons in Iowa working to make the facility COVID safe.

'In early January, the department received a limited shipment of vaccines to use primarily on our staff to help ensure that our medical and security staff are able to continue to operate the correctional facilities where the virus can spread incredibly fast,” Communications Director Cord Overton said. 'Our strategy as a department was to use this limited early supply primarily on medical and security staff most likely to interact with inmates that could be COVID-19 positive.”

He said 95 staff members in that first group were offered and received the vaccine.

A report from Iowa Capital Digest showed only 52 percent of Iowa prison staff want the vaccination, and it is unclear whether the Mt. Pleasant Correctional Facility is included in those statistics.

Overton said he won't now the adoption rate for Mt. Pleasant until the prison receives its next allotment of vaccines under Phase 1B. The prison employs more than 250 people, according to its website.

'Until then, we're focusing on providing reliable education to both staff and inmates so that they can make an informed decision related to the vaccine,” he said.