Hoosier Inmates Producing PPE for COVID-19 Fight

(photo courtesy of the Indiana Department of Correction)

Governor Eric Holcomb announced Friday that offenders at the Miami Correctional Facility are producing personal protective equipment that will be used in the fight against COVID-19. Inmates at the prison are producing hundreds of face masks and personal protection gowns per day, as well as 12-ounce bottles of hand sanitizer.

The Indiana Department of Correction says its Indiana Correctional Industry production lines shifted to PPE production after the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the state. 

“Our team is very good at adapting,” said Patrick Rich, sales and marketing manager for Indiana Correctional Industry. “Whatever our directors ask us to do, ask our facilities to do, they do a very good job of responding to that need. We all understand the importance of what we’re doing today and in the day’s to come because this is an important and vital role to public safety that we are being a part of.”

The governor’s office says the equipment being made at the facility will be used by first responders and other DOC facilities to allow traditional PPE to remain available for healthcare workers.

“I’m pleased to have the Department of Correction joining the ranks of Hoosier businesses, large and small, stepping forward in the fight against COVID-19,” Holcomb said in a news release. “Production of these items will lessen the strain on the supply chain, leaving more of these products available for Hoosiers.”

The DOC says it plans to repurpose another production line at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility to expand production.