LOUISVILLE, Ky. — David Hager says he is dying.

He can’t eat, keeps throwing up and has lost his sense of smell and taste, says his mother, Brenda Trimble, who calls the 33-year-old “Bubby.”

In an electronic message from Green River Correctional Complex, the prison 125 miles southwest of Louisville, Hager said that when he told medical staff he couldn’t breathe, he was placed in isolation — “thrown in the hole.”

Now Hager, who is serving 10 years for robbery but is eligible for parole next year, is back in his cell, his mother says, with a bunkie who is so sick he can’t hold his head up.

In his message, he begged, “Please get us help.”

Hager is one of more than 900 men at Green River, where 31 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, five are in the hospital and one has died. Correction officials have refused to release the name of the deceased inmate, citing federal confidentiality laws.

Visits are temporarily banned to all 13 of the state’s prisons, but in interviews this week, the wives, girlfriends and mothers of 10 men at Green River said they are terrified and that the prison is a death trap.

They and two inmates who spoke with The Courier Journal by phone say the sick are quarantined in the same cell with the healthy.

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In a call recorded by his wife, Phoenix Shepherd, one inmate said three-quarters of the people in his dorm are sick with migraines or fevers.

They say even sick inmates have been denied testing and that medical staff won’t take their temperature unless they are elderly or already on a list of men to be monitored.

They say that so many men are released at a time from their dorms to shower and make phone calls that it is impossible to practice social distancing.

Many won’t tell medical staff they are sick, fearing that if they do they will be be sent to isolation — where inmates typically are sent for punishment — or locked most of the day in their cells.

“They just tough it out,” said Jermaine Kirkland, 31, who is serving life with parole after 25 years for complicity to murder.

“They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t,” said Ashley Burl, his fiancée.

Prison acknowledges housing sick inmates with cellmates

The Corrections Department’s spokeswoman, Lisa Lamb, said it understands family members' concerns but that it is working “diligently to minimize health risks and doing everything we reasonably can to prevent the virus from spreading further.”

She said medical staff checks every inmate at least once a day and that all have been given two masks, the second to be worn while the first is laundered.

She said 10 extra bottles of germicide have been placed this week in each dorm and enough spray bottles have been ordered to put one in every cell.

She said if inmates are symptomatic for any illness that can’t be treated adequately by medical staff, they are sent to a hospital.

And she said inmates are released from their dorms in limited numbers — 64 at a time — to allow social distancing, and banned from mixing with those housed elsewhere.

She also said inmates may have their temperature taken on request, which several inmates disputed.

But Lamb said because every cell in the prison houses two inmates, it has been impossible to quarantine sick inmates in single cells, so inmates who test positive are now kept in their dorm in with their cellmate who already has been exposed.

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Seventy-five inmates at Green River are under quarantine, she said.

While corrections officers are required to wear masks, she said that hasn’t been made mandatory for prisoners for fear it would create an “enforcement issue that would impact population management.”

Moreover, Lamb emphasized that inmates at Green River are receiving “quality medical care” and that “aggressive steps” have been taken to protect them and staff — 18 of whom have tested positive for the virus.

Two staff elsewhere have tested positive but no inmates at other prisons have been confirmed.

ACLU says Kentucky must treat inmates better

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky said the state is not doing enough.

Only 50 inmates have been tested at Green River, and tests are in such short supply that even those who are sick have been denied them, the ACLU says.

And it chastised the state for housing the sick and healthy in the same 8-by-10-foot cells.

“This combination of crowded living quarters and limited ability to practice good hygiene are a potent formula for tragedy with this disease,” said ACLU attorney Aaron Tucek.

"It is difficult to look at the coronavirus outbreak at Green River Correctional Complex and not conclude that the Justice Cabinet and the Kentucky Department of Corrections have failed to fully take seriously the risks posed by COVID-19,” he said.

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Tucek and Public Advocate Damon Preston, who runs the state public defender system, commended Gov. Andy Beshear for ordering the release of medically vulnerable inmates and low-level offenders who are nearing the end of their sentence.

So far a combined 717 of 883 prisoners in both categories have been freed, Lamb said, including 13 medically vulnerable inmates released Monday from Green River.

Will Kentucky release more inmates?

But both say the governor should go farther.

Preston recommended releasing inmates who have served decades behind bars and no longer pose a threat; Tucek suggested releasing the elderly and more who are immunosuppressed.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Beshear’s office said the governor, the state Kentucky Department for Public Health and the Corrections Department continue to evaluate all options, including the further release of inmates, and that those decisions will be based on both public health and public safety.”

Inmates and their loved ones offered other suggestions and say more must be done.

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'Bring him home so I can take care of him'

Kayleigh Watson, whose boyfriend is serving a 10-year sentence for second-degree manslaughter — and who is eligible for parole in 2022 — said he and others should be put on home incarceration.

“Bring him home so I can take care of him,” she said.

She said when he last called she could hear he was sick.

“It was the most heartbreaking thing I have ever heard,” she said.

Melissa Washburn, whose fiance has served 15½ years of a 20-year sentence for murder, said Beshear should call in the National Guard to clean the prison.

Francesca Mayes, whose partner is serving time for burglary, said wearing masks shoud be made mandatory for inmates.

Mekayla Breland, whose boyfriend is serving five years for manslaughter, said if Beshear really wants to make a difference, he should order the release of first time violent offenders, who research shows are unlikely to commit new offenses.

Is a 2-week lockdown needed for inmate safety?

And at least a couple of inmates, including Kirkland, said the Corrections Department should lock all inmates at Green River in their cells for two weeks — the same quarantine recommended for civilians.

Lamb said the idea was considered and rejected because total lockdowns are usually ordered to bring inmates under control and to punish them.

But prisoners and their loved ones say they are desperate.

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Shavon Williams, whose husband is serving time on drug and weapons charges, said: “One has died. How many more will have to die before we do something about this?”

Gregory Carlton, 33, who is from Carroll County and serving a five-year sentence for assault, hopes to return home to his two children, his wife, Amber, said.

“I love you baby,” he said earlier this week in a message on the prison’s email system. “Please call whoever you can.

"This is crazy here. I hope I make it out.”

Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson.