CORALVILLE, Iowa (The Gazette) — Records show an Iowa prison warden abruptly retired last month after state officials began investigating whether his facility ignored guidelines intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The Gazette reports that James McKinney sent a one-sentence email on May 8 to state Department of Corrections Director Beth Skinner saying he was retiring that day as warden of the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville.

His email was sent two hours after Skinner named a new interim warden of the facility. The newspaper obtained access to the emails through a public records request. A coronavirus outbreak among Coralville inmates and staff began in April.