On Friday, the director of the federal prison system defended his agency’s response in an interview on CNN, saying the pandemic was an overwhelming challenge that no one expected. “I don’t think anybody was ready for this Covid, so we’re dealing with it just as well as anybody else, and I’d be proud to say we’re doing pretty good,” said Michael Carvajal, who took over as the head of the Bureau of Prisons less than two months ago.

Six of the federal prisoners who died were being held in Oakdale, La., where nearly 1,000 people are incarcerated, and where there have been reports of a revolt among inmates.

Attorney General William P. Barr last week ordered the Bureau of Prisons to release more people from federal custody and to focus on three prisons that have been hardest hit by the coronavirus, including the Federal Correctional Institution Oakdale.

State prisons and jails, which hold the vast majority of the people incarcerated in the United States, have also faced unrest in recent days. More than 100 men at a Washington State prison demonstrated in response to positive tests at the facility. Police officers fired pepper spray and “sting balls,” which eject rubber pellets, to quell the demonstration. In Kansas, inmates at the Lansing Correctional Facility, where at least 28 people have tested positive, set small fires and broke windows in a demonstration that lasted for nearly 12 hours. Two inmates suffered injuries. In Pennsylvania, families of inmates at the Franklin County jail told The PA Post, a local news website, that the inmates were staging a hunger strike.

And in Texas, the state prison system will no longer take new inmates from county jails starting on Monday, according to the state’s Department of Criminal Justice. In a letter sent to county sheriffs on Saturday, Bryan Collier, the department’s executive director, said the decision put additional strain on counties but was necessary to fight the spread of the virus.

Immigrants held at the Otay Mesa detention center in San Diego, Calif., said in phone calls recorded by their lawyers that guards had pepper-sprayed them on Friday after they demanded masks and began to make their own out of clothing and plastic bags. They also said they were asked to sign liability waivers absolving CoreCivic, the private prison company that operates the facility, from responsibility for any coronavirus-related illnesses.

Amanda Gilchrist, a spokeswoman for CoreCivic, described the document that detainees were asked to sign as an educational document explaining that masks were not entirely protective against the virus. She said the company dropped the requirement after the protest and denied that pepper spray was used. At least 16 detainees at the facility have tested positive, according to local news reports.