SALEM — U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has urged federal prison officials to explain how the prison in Sheridan is handling social distancing, whether it has a sufficient stock of personal protective equipment and what steps will be taken to ensure adequate staffing if a COVID-19 outbreak occurs.

Wyden sent a letter Monday to the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons but asked for information specific to Oregon’s sole federal prison, located northwest of Salem. Wyden’s letter follows repeated concerns raised by Oregon Federal Public Defender Lisa Hay.

The senator noted his office had received “numerous alarming reports’’ from staff and family members of inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution, Sheridan, alleging that proper precautions to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus are not being followed.

“This crisis must be met with the strictest commitment to the health and safety of everyone, whether incarcerated or not,’’ Wyden wrote. “Everyone in federal prisons, from staff to inmates, deserves a safe environment, and I am eager to hear how the BOP is acting to create one.’’

He submitted a list of questions and asked for a response no later than May 1. He said his office personally reached out to the prison on March 27, but hadn’t heard back from anyone.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 22 federal inmates have died from the virus. There are 497 inmates and 319 staff across the country, who have tested positive for COVID-19. No one in the Sheridan prison is known to have tested positive. The Federal Bureau of Prisons last week extended a lockdown for all its prisons through May 18 to try to stem the spread of the virus.

Last week, Hay said she feared an inmate’s suicide by hanging and other reports she’s received of inmates harming themselves stem in part from the continued coronavirus lockdown at the federal prison in Sheridan.

Though Hay said she didn’t know exactly why the inmates chose to hurt themselves, she said the prisoners face unprecedented strain from having to stay in their cells with no visits from family, friends or attorneys.

Sheridan’s population has fallen by 17 inmates from 1,804 to 1,787 since Attorney General William Barr on April 3 ordered the bureau of prisons to review “all at-risk’’ inmates for consideration for early release, according to Hay. Hay has argued that’s not enough and has called on the warden of the sole federal prison in Oregon to alert the U.S. District Court that inmates over 65, who face a higher risk of contracting the coronavirus, are eligible for compassionate release.

The prisons bureau said it has cut down on inmate transfers and suspended all social visits and legal visits for inmates. The bureau’s website also notes that the prisons are screening all new inmates for COVID-19 risk factors and symptoms, quarantining asymptomatic inmates with higher-risk exposure factors and isolating inmates with symptoms.

Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carajal, in a videotaped message, last week urged all prison wardens to identify areas in their prisons for potential quarantine of inmates with symptoms and plan for severe staffing shortages. He said federal prisons have moved more than 1,119 high-risk inmates out of prison and has placed them on home confinement across the country as a result of the attorney general’s order.

Hay has complained that she’s heard from inmates and others that inmates are arriving at the federal prison in Sheridan from the Columbia County jail or from a detention center in Pahrump, Nevada, and then quarantined for 14 days but in cells where the air vents to the general population.

This article was originally published by The Oregonian/OregonLive, one of more than a dozen news organizations throughout the state sharing their coverage of the novel coronavirus outbreak to help inform Oregonians about this evolving heath issue.