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- Prisoners making cloth masks
Texas prisoners will make up to 20,000 cloth masks a day
[8:53 a.m.] Inmates across Texas are making up to 20,000 cloth masks a day, the Houston Chronicle reports. The masks will be used by Texas Department of Criminal Justice employees and offenders across the state, to contain the spread among the state prisons. As of Monday, 19 offenders and 28 employees in the system had tested positive.
Jeff Ormsby, executive director of the union that represents TDCJ workers, said that the initiative was a step in the right direction, but also added that employees in a cell block need "the proper N95 masks."
Although inmates in Texas prisons make all sorts of products, from soap to license plates, the state remains one of five in the country that doesn’t pay for regular jobs at these facilities. — Juan Pablo Garnham