One prisoner at Bullock Correctional Facility and two prisoners at St. Clair Correctional Facility have tested positive for the coronavirus, the Alabama Department of Corrections announced Friday night.

Dave Thomas, a 66-year-old man incarcerated at St. Clair, died Wednesday at a local hospital. Thomas had previously tested positive for COVID-19 and was hospitalized on April for what ADOC described as treatment for "pre-existing" conditions. Thomas was terminally ill, according to prison officials.

"[Thomas] was pronounced dead on April 16 presumedly due to a cardiovascular event," ADOC said in a statement. An autopsy is pending for an ultimate cause of death to be confirmed.

The second St. Clair prisoner to test positive, a 52-year-old man, is also being treated at an outside hospital. Bullock's patient, a 33-year-old man, is being treated in the prison system.

A total of 57 have tested negative for COVID-19, with 5 tests still outstanding. Six prison staff members have tested positive, including employees at St. Clair and Bullock.

“In addition to the numerous, system-wide preventative and precautionary measures instituted to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our facilities, the ADOC has been aggressively preparing for this day, which was an inevitability based on what we are seeing across the country and world,” said ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn in a statement. “We’ve planned extensively, we’ve trained thoroughly, and now we are activating the containment strategies outlined in our Pandemic COOP to slow the spread of this virus and ensure we continue to protect all those who live and work in our facilities to the best of our ability.”

Coronavirus in Prisons:Alabama prisons block personal, legal visits amid coronavirus pandemic

Fear of the coronavirus is currently rampant in Alabama prisons, according to multiple prisoner and family interviews the Advertiser has conducted in recent weeks. Social distancing inside is impossible, and many dorms have a handful of sinks for upwards of 350 men to use at any one time.

Coronavirus:Families of Alabama state prison inmates fear for their health amid outbreak

Alabama prisons have blocked personal and legal visits to prisoners and implemented staff temperature checks statewide, among other measures, in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19 into prison dormitories. Prison officials said this month repairs were underway to broken sinks, and prisoner-staffed factories on some state campuses had been converted to produce masks for staff and inmates to use.

But prisoners and their families tell the Advertiser they remain concerned about how quickly the novel coronavirus might spread if introduced into a prison, and the havoc it could wreak on a system already plagued by failing infrastructure and poor medical care, endangering both the incarcerated and the staff who return every day to their Alabama communities.

The most basic protocols for preventing infection — avoiding large crowds of people, keeping 6 feet apart when you do have to see people, even washing your hands as frequently as possible — are virtually impossible for incarcerated individuals to follow.

In many Alabama prison dorms, men sleep on bunks beds separated just enough to allow a single-person walkway. The facilities are dangerously overcrowded, with the inmate population in December 2019 nearly 10,000 people over what the current prison was built to handle.

'American horror story': The prison voices you don't hear from have the most to tell us

In a letter this week, one prisoner, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, spoke of the fear he and others fear as they the coronavirus pandemic unfold outside prison walls. He said as an older inmate, he is at high risk.

"We are the ones at a higher risk and should be isolated from the rest of the population, but still the guards allow others to come in from other dorms to do their trading and dope deals. There's nothing being done to protect us," he said. "We feel like trapped rats waiting for death to come."

Lisa, a registered nurse whose husband is incarcerated in Alabama, told the Advertiser last month she has serious concerns about how already over-burdened prison infirmaries could treat large numbers of symptomatic patients. Prisoners requiring intensive treatment would likely need to be transported to "free world" hospitals.

"It is airborne and the fact they live practically on top of one another concerns me," she said. "Not sure how the infirmary will handle this."

After a 30-day moratorium on accepting most new inmates from county jails, prison officials announced Thursday it will begin transitioning 120 people from county jails to state prisons through a 14-day quarantine period.

Coronavirus in Prisons:Alabama to quarantine new inmates in 81-year-old, previously closed prison

Male intakes will be quarantined in the 81-year-old Draper prison that was closed in 2016 due to deteriorating conditions. Prison officials say the prison has been renovated to "safely house" inmates.

Advocates across the state have called for prison and parole officials to consider compassionate prisoner releases to safeguard vulnerable individuals and ease the serious threat of overcrowding inside Alabama prisons.

The Alabamians for Fair Justice coalition has called for widespread release of inmates who may be particularly vulnerable to coronavirus complications, including 1,100 people over the age of 65 and people with chronic health conditions, as well as:

People within 12 months of the end of their sentence

People who have served 20 consecutive years or more in prison for a non-capital offense, not involving a child, and not a sexual offense

People already deemed parole-eligible

People currently under deferral after being denied parole over the past five years, but who were otherwise eligible for parole pending completion of further programming

People currently serving a split-sentence, where the split sentence is for five years or less

People who qualify for mandatory parole but who have not yet been released

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Melissa Brown at 334-240-0132 or mabrown@gannett.com.