GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - In-person visits at state prisons were suspended on March 16 to try to stop the spread of COVID-19 among inmates and visitors.
The time in between has been tough for families who rely on those visits as their main source of communication with an incarcerated loved one.
For the last two months, Montia Blackwell and her kids haven’t been able to see her husband in the Morrison Correctional Center in Richmond County. She worries about lost time. “He’s not being able to watch them grow up and see the things that they’re doing,” she explained.
For Cierra Motley and her fiancé in the Bertie Correctional Center, it’s been a little longer. She hasn’t seen him in over 20 years. Despite the time, they got engaged in February and wanted to be married in June. However, COVID-19 halted that.
“It’s putting a damper on it,” said Motley. “We were excited and we’re ready to get married, but we can’t now.”
The communication officer for the state prisons, John Bull, said this is something they had to do to keep inmates and employees safe. “We understand that this is a hardship and that this is an unfortunate situation,” he said. “But this is a critical health initiative to keep people healthy.”
For Motley, she just can’t wait to get that feeling of closeness after so long. “I just want to hug him,” she laughed. “I just want to wrap my arms around him and get a long hug.”
The Department of Public Safety said 1,083 inmates in state prisons have tested positive for the virus. Six of them have died.
Bull said they are in the process of testing all their offenders in every facility in the state.
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