The daughter of a Lompoc federal prison inmate, who recently spoke out about a lack of communication from the prison on whether her father was sick with COVID-19, said she's finally received the bad news she's been dreading.
Holly Mowry posted Tuesday on Twitter that her father, Charles Molesworth, confirms he has contracted the virus.
The tweet said: "FINALLY got a call from my dad at #lompoc. He had only had a couple minutes. He's feeling ok, even though he's #COVID19 positive. He basically said it's a s*** show in there. Even though ever single person in his unit are positive."
Molesworth, 69, is serving a 5-year sentence at the prison. He's now one of at least 843 inmates at the prison to be infected, according to the Santa Barbara County Health Department's latest numbers.
Mowry told KSBY News last week that she was concerned with the lack of information she was receiving in regards to her father's health.
Phone privileges for inmates were suspended through May 18 in what a prison spokesman described as a way to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Mowry said the only information she received about her father was through hand-written letters he sent to her home in Florida.
Given her father's age and the high rate of virus spread at the prison, Mowry was very concerned about her dad. She said the prison refused to tell her anything about her father's health and indicated it would only update her if his life was at risk.
A class action lawsuit was filed May 16 against the Federal Prison in Lompoc for allegedly "mismanaging" the COVID-19 outbreak.
The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California (ACLU), the Prison Law Office, and the law firm Bird Marella filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of people incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institutions in Lompoc and on Terminal Island.
Two COVID-19 related deaths have been reported at the prison.
