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As COVID-19 surges through North Carolina’s prison system, families are struggling to make contact with loved ones behind bars.
On March 16, 2020, the North Carolina Division of Prisons suspended visits to all state prison facilities. Since then, communication between family members and their incarcerated relatives has proved more difficult, and several families contacted said they are worried.
Photograph courtesy of Linda Taylor
Linda Taylor (right) and her son Robert Windsor (left) during a prison visit, a few months before Windsor was diagnosed with ALS.
Linda Taylor, mother of Robert Lane Windsor, said she has only heard from her son a few times since March 16, through one video call and some phone calls, despite his worsening medical condition.
N.C. Claims Fewer Prisoners Died of COVID Than Documents Show
In the final hours of August 2, Billy Bingham lay alone in his cell, silent except for the sounds of his short, shallow breaths. Thirty-four minutes after midnight, he was dead. Paramedics arrived at the Albemarle Correctional Institute, a state prison in central North Carolina, too late to take him to the hospital, and instead called the time of death and left. A prison official called his uncle, who would wake up to a voicemail sharing the news.
Binghamâs story is not unique. A
North Carolina Health News investigation in partnership with