In an update Monday afternoon, the Department of Correction revealed at least four inmates are now in critical condition. One inmate has died and over 20 are under watch.

2/2/16 UPDATE: Normal operations resumed Feb. 2 at the prison. Officials at the facility say current flu numbers include one offender in intensive care at a Terre Haute hospital and five offenders in the facility's health care unit.



ORIGINAL STORY:



A mystery illness sweeping through Putnamville Correctional Facility has killed one inmate and put 25 others in the hospital.

One former offender says administrators ignored his warnings about sanitation at the facility.

It started behind prison walls Friday. A deadly, mystery illness at "The State Farm" in Putnamville.

One dead, 25 under watch and four of them critical.

As the count increases, so does the concern - Who's been exposed and for how long?

"I would feel more concerned about workers leaving there," said one neighbor.

The DOC along with the Centers for Disease Control are trying to find the source. Seventy-five air handling filters have been replaced and staff and offenders both armed with masks and sanitizer.

Too little, too late, says one former inmate.

Wade Meisberger was an inmate in the facility just a year ago.

"It's an incubator. It's dirty," he said as he showed the letters and packets he sent warning prison officials and Governor Mike Pence of what he believed were "unsafe prison conditions."

"I knew something was going to happen; either increased violence (or) more infection," Meisberger told 13 Investigates.

Meisberger, who served time at five different Indiana prisons for the drunken fight that killed his best friend in 1991, says Putnamville was overcrowded, unsafe and unsanitary.

"The dining rooms are always filthy. They run chow continuously at the State Farm because there are so many offenders there and such a small dining room," he explained. "The chemicals that they use are not strong enough, they dilute the bleach."

In a response letter, the state said it was commended for it's sanitation program at Putnamville.

"The breaking down of water pipes, of the sinks, the toilets the showers," he continued, running down a list of problems.

Meisberger believes his warnings were ignored because of his past. He is a former "America's Most Wanted" fugitive.

In 2007, he went on the run following a parole violation. Police said he faked his own death by jumping off a bridge in Kentucky. He was re-arrested in 2012 after posting videos on YouTube.

That's how he landed at Putnamville, serving time from April 2014 until his release last year.

The DOC says it will answer questions Tuesday.