Individuals become sick at Eastern Correctional Facility

NAPANOCH – First responders, including the Kingston Fire Department HAZMAT Team, converged on Eastern Correctional Facility in Napanoch on Thursday afternoon after several individuals became sick from an unconfirmed substance at the prison.

Mid-Hudson News reported earlier this week that prisoners and corrections officers alike are being sickened at Woodbourne Correctional Facility in Sullivan County. A spokesman for the Department of Corrections and Community Service in Albany this week confirmed there have been “several recent incidents,” of staff, National Guard members, and inmates “falling ill from possible chemical exposures.”

Last weekend, one corrections officer and two National Guard members became lightheaded and nauseated while working in the same housing unit at Woodburne, and after being evaluated, were transported to area hospitals for assessment.

This year, in prisons throughout the state, corrections officers have been sickened with similar complaints of nausea, dizziness, and, in at least two of the incidents, seizure-like symptoms. Further information about the incident at Eastern Correctional Facility was not immediately available. At least six ambulances responded to Eastern Correctional Facility on Thursday.