As the ongoing coronavirus pandemic increased concerns over health and safety in the country’s prison system, two child sex offenders were among the 824 inmates that were set free in Massachusetts.

From April 2 to April 26, the state had already released 824 inmates, which tallies to 36 prisoners released on a daily basis, as prison facilities are forced to empty jails to prevent the further spread of coronavirus. The state had not yet issued a specific date as to when they will stop the release of convicted criminals.

Unfortunately, those that have already been released were 54-year-old Glenn Christie and 29-year-old Matthew Parris. The two were accused of raping two underage kids.

In 2018, Christie had been convicted of raping a 12-year-old boy while Parris was arrested for rape and sexual assault of two teenage girls. According to Parris’ file, the 29-year-old had previously worked as a teaching assistant at Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School. Using the social media platform, Instagram, Parris contacted a 15-year-old girl, whom he had arranged to meet at a local cemetery. During the said meeting, Parris allegedly tried to kiss and touch the girl’s breast. As the victim fled, Parris gave her a bag of sex toys. Later on, he continued to threaten the victim from performing oral sex in the school closet.

After his arrest, a second victim reached out to the law enforcement, saying that Parris had also used the same social media platform to lure her in. The victim also went to share a similar story in which the felon had tried to force her into performing oral sex. He later threatened to harm the victim’s family, and forced her to get undressed in his car, and drove her to a location where he sexually assaulted her.

Parris had since pleaded guilty for aggravated statutory rape, rape of a child with force, and kidnapping of a child.

Currently, there have been 110 COVID-19 cases in the Massachusetts prison system, while 81 correctional officers and 23 other staffers also tested positive. The situation in the country’s correctional facilities had become increasingly concerning. In a report from Reuters, among four state prisons, around 3,000 inmates tested positive for the Chinese virus.

For example, the majority of the population at the Marion Correctional Institution tested positive from the coronavirus. Among 2,500 prisoners, a whopping 2,028 inmates tested positive. Alarmingly, 95% of those who were infected showed no signs or symptoms.

Moreover, in four other state prisons, namely: North Carolina, Ohio, Arkansas, and Virginia, among 3,277 inmates who have tested positive form the virus, 96% were asymptomatic. Due to close living conditions, nearly 2.3 million people who have been incarcerated are at risk of catching the virus.

Even President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, had been released into home confinement due to increasing fears over the deadly coronavirus outbreak. To ease the public’s worry, the President assured Americans on Sunday that a vaccine might be readily available by the end of 2020.