A Florida inmate refused to take off a protective mask. He was handcuffed, punished.

Before they were asked to make cloth masks for Florida’s prison guards to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus, some inmates were told not to wear them.

One was handcuffed for doing so.

According to a disciplinary report provided to the Miami Herald, an inmate at Martin Correctional Institution in Martin County was cited March 27 after he returned to his dorm early one morning wearing a face mask.

When questioned by a corrections officer, the 37-year-old inmate said he received the mask at his last institution.

The man didn’t take off the mask when the officer told him to, and said “F--- that, take me to confinement.” Confinement is an extra restrictive form of incarceration loathed by inmates, who call it being put in “jail.”

He was then handcuffed and escorted to confinement pending his charge of “disrespect to officials or staff.”

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Michelle Glady said in a statement that “masks are currently provided to inmates when indicated in accordance with infectious disease protocols.” She did not elaborate or respond to a request to comment specifically on the inmate’s citation.

As of Monday evening, 35 inmates and 45 staff across Florida’s prison system had tested positive for COVID-19. The Department of Corrections, which employs 24,000 people statewide and incarcerates around 95,000, has thus far ignored requests for information on how many inmates across the state prison system have been tested.

Thirty-three of the sick inmates are at Blackwater River Correctional Facility near Pensacola, which is run by a private contractor. The Department of Corrections provides the inmates. Despite the ongoing pandemic, which also has infected six Blackwater staffers, inmates there were not allowed to cover their faces — even with the front of their shirts, family members said.

One mother of a 30-year-old at Blackwater said her son was eventually given a mask for the first time last Friday, days after cases at Blackwater soared from four to 30.

A staffer at an unidentified Florida prison told the Miami Herald last week that supervisors at prisons run by the Florida Department of Corrections, which is the vast majority, have refused to let employees wear protective masks.

An inmate at an unidentified South Florida work camp wrote in a text that inmates haven’t gotten masks, but some staff wear them. He wonders what will happen on the inmates’ weekly trip to a Palm Beach Walmart Thursday, where a mandatory mask rule has been put in place.

“I might just put on a bandanna to see what happens,” he said.

Rep. Dianne Hart, an inmate advocate and Tampa Democrat, said she’s been asking the Department of Corrections for more protection for officers and inmates alike. She’s also asked for the state to provide hand sanitizer sheets to inmates, since gel disinfectant is considered contraband.

She says “everybody should be wearing masks at this point” and that inmates are “way too close to each other” for them to be unprotected.

Hart isn’t satisfied with what she’s heard in response.

“They’re telling me they have it under control. I’m not feeling that control,” she said. “The moment it peaks inside these prisons, we’ll be in a world of trouble.”