FCI Ray Brook is seen in April 2016. (Enterprise file photo — Antonio Olivero)

RAY BROOK — The federal Bureau of Prisons reported Tuesday that 34 inmates at the Federal Correctional Institute at Ray Brook have tested positive for COVID-19, the most currently active cases ever at the prison since the start of the pandemic.

BOP data shows no staff testing positive for the virus.

This prison has seen several spikes of the virus over the past 10 months. The first case was reported in late March. In April, transmission spiked with six inmates and nine staff members testing positive. In June, four inmates and one staff member tested positive. In October one inmate tested positive. At the start of December five inmates had tested positive.

Request for comment from the BOP was not returned by press time.

On Tuesday Jose Saldana, director for the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, said his advocacy group has been working with state prisons, not so much with federal prisons in New York, but he said many of RAPP’s requests for clemency and community supervision release apply the same.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a state facility or a federal facility. The policy should be the same. It has to move toward decarceration,” Saldana said. “There’s really no difference between a federal prison and a state prison. The COVID virus doesn’t see any difference.”