SALEM — As coronavirus outbreaks rage at several Oregon prisons, inmates at a minimum-security facility in Salem are pushing for changes after they say administrators sent dozens of inmates who had just tested positive for COVID-19 back into the general population.

Inmates at the Santiam Correctional Institution said they’re increasingly concerned about the way administrators are handling the pandemic and believe the Oregon Department of Corrections has knowingly placed inmates in danger. According to six inmates at the Salem prison, administrators began sending COVID-positive inmates back into their dormitories Jan. 21 — a day after the prison offered mass testing that revealed an outbreak of about 50 cases.

The inmates said some of those who tested positive were sent back to their dorms for more than 24 hours before being transferred to a quarantine unit.

Instead of cells, the men housed in the minimum-security prison sleep in large rooms lined with bunk beds.

There are four dorms, each with about 100 units.

Inmates said they’ve repeatedly tried to push for testing of those who feel sick, as well as better sanitation protocols throughout the prison.

But they reported their calls often fall on deaf ears.

Department of Corrections Spokeswoman Jennifer Black said that 50 Santiam inmates tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 20.

The department’s chief medical officer requested tests for all Santiam inmates who wanted them, and the department began working on transportation plans for inmates who tested positive.

Black said the inmates, who were all asymptomatic, were told to keep their masks on while they waited to be moved and were taken to the quarantine unit at the nearby Oregon State Penitentiary the next day.

“If an adult in custody had been symptomatic, he would not have been held in general population and would have been transported to the COVID-19 Recovery Unit at Coffee Creek (Correctional Facility) as soon as possible,” Black said in an email.

She said that while Santiam has offered mass testing only once so far, it offers tests to all inmates who request them.

She said 114 Santiam inmates have tested positive since the beginning of the pandemic and that 86 of them have recovered, including the 50 who tested positive on Jan. 20.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 42 inmates have died of coronavirus across all of Oregon’s prisons.