WEDNESDAy, MARCH 18 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
The coronavirus outbreak
Only alcohol-free products are
provided to prisoners, he said.
“While inmates are not provid-
ed with hand sanitizer because of
its alcohol content, they are en-
couraged to wash their hands
frequently with soap and water in
accordance with the CDC’s guid-
ance,” he said. “There is no short-
age of hand soap for either staff or
inmates.”
Long said the bureau has made
preparations to move staff to
other institutions if there are
staffing shortages. But Rojas said
this has been difficult in the past,
because most officers and staff
live in remote regions and cannot
easily transfer to other facilities.
Advocates have also pushed for
releasing people who are behind
bars to lessen the potential pool
of people who might get infected
there. The American Civil Liber-
ties Union of Louisiana called for
speeding up parole hearings for
elderly state prison inmates, as
well as “the immediate release of
people who are being jailed pre-
trial based solely on their inabili-
ty to pay bail.”
In Delaware County, Pa. —
where a prison employee at
George W. H ill Correctional Facil-
ity tested positive and 30 are
quarantined — t he public defend-
er’s office on Monday identified
31 prisoners over the age of 60
who it says are a low risk to the
public.
“One of the prisoners is 80
years old,” said Emilio “Skip”
DiMatteo, the acting director of
the office. “We are hoping to
release them as soon a possible.”
In Cuyahoga County, Ohio,
which includes Cleveland, jail
and court officials are also work-
ing to shrink their inmate popula-
tion — using “Saturday court” —
so they can free up jail space to
isolate inmates who may develop
symptoms. So far, they have
shrunk the population from
about 2,000 inmates to 1,700 in-
mates.
“We are trying to expedite cas-
es for nonviolent offenders,” said
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas
Court Judge Brendan J. Sheehan.
“The message has to be perfectly
clear. We are not opening the
doors and saying prisoners can
leave now.”
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[email protected]suspended visitation in the past
two weeks. In many cases, if
inmates were not already provid-
ed with free phone calls to family,
they are now being provided.
At the New York City Depart-
ment of Correction, officials did
not suspend visitation until Sun-
day, the day before the prison
inspector died, even though the
union for correctional officers
had been calling for it for days.
New York state shut down visi-
tations on Saturday until at least
April 11, a move officials said did
not extend to legal visits. Te xas
also said it was cutting off visita-
tions “until further notice” at its
state-run facilities, adding that
employees who feel ill or have a
fever must remain home.
The California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation,
which manages the state’s pris-
ons, announced Sunday it was
suspending family visitation to
adult facilities on Monday “until
further notice.”
Local jails also have an-
nounced similar measures, in-
cluding in Cook County, Ill.,
which includes Chicago, where
officials halted visits beginningMarch 15. In San Mateo County,
Calif., south of San Francisco, the
sheriff’s office said it would sus-
pend “all contact visits with in-
mates” and screen people outside
the facility who are arrested.
Correctional officers at the
Federal Bureau of Prisons, which
is responsible for more than
175,000 inmates, asked the bu-
reau two weeks ago to shut down
visitation for family and friends
and to have attorneys for the
inmates speak to their clients by
phone. On Friday, the bureau
suspended visitation for the next
30 days.
“They responded late — but
they responded,” said Joe Rojas,
southeast regional vice president
for the Council of Prison Locals.
“The fact that they finally took
action is a good thing, but this is a
Band-Aid. This is not going away.”
Rojas said officers are not be-
ing provided with basic protec-
tive gear and supplies. Most are
bringing in their own alcohol
wipes and hand sanitizer — if
they are able to buy the products.
Masks, he said, are also in short
supply.
Staffing shortages are also aconcern. Within the system of
122 prisons, he said, dozens of
them already have a severe officer
shortage. The prisons’ janitors,
electricians and nurses routinely
walk prison wards, backfilling to
help with the shortfall.
“What if staff gets sick and they
can’t come to work? Are you
going to put everyone on lock-
down?” Rojas said.
In a statement, spokesman
Justin Long said the bureau is
following coronavirus guidelines
from U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, as well
as the World Health Organiza-
tion.
“There are no known cases of
COVID-19 among Bureau of Pris-
ons inmates at this time,” Long
said. “Out of an abundance of
caution, the BOP provided guid-
ance to health care professionals
throughout the system and has a
screening tool in place for use in
the event an inmate or staff mem-
ber is exposed or symptomatic.”
Long also said that the bureau
has an ample supply of cleaning,
sanitation and medical supplies
and that prisons with supply con-
cerns should contact the bureau.DAVID ZALUBOWSKI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Inmates stand in the yard of a correctional facility last month in Englewood, Colo. The Federal Bureau
of Prisons, responsible for more than 17 5,000 inmates, on Friday suspended visitation for 30 days.BY KIMBERLY KINDY,
MARK BERMAN
AND JULIE TATEA 56-year-old New York City
prison investigator died Sunday
of the coronavirus, weeks after he
began showing symptoms and
went home to self-quarantine. At
a county prison in Pennsylvania,
the virus sickened the mainte-
nance director about a week ago,
sending 30 inmates and staff
members into quarantine, where
they remain. And at San Quentin
State Prison in California, in-
mates in two cell blocks have
been isolated with “flu-like symp-
toms” — but no test for covid-19,
the disease caused by the corona-
virus, has been ordered yet.
Jails and prisons across the
nation are reeling from the chal-
lenges and chaos they face as the
virus begins to infiltrate their
restricted, close-quartered envi-
ronments, creating a level of vul-
nerability similar to cruise ships
and nursing homes.
“Unfortunately we are not the
public school system, we cannot
shut down. We can’t say to the
inmates, we want you to go home
and once this dies down, we’d l ike
you to come back,” said Elias
Husamudeen, union president
for officers who work in the New
York City Department of Correc-
tion. “We can’t do this through
Google. We literally have to be
here — and they do too.”
Medical experts said the in-
mate population is particularly
susceptible to infection. They live
in a stressful environment, have a
poor diet, can have chronic ill-
nesses and are sometimes elderly.
“You have an artificial environ-
ment which is at a high risk for
transmission... the same you
have in military barracks and
dormitories,” said Josiah D. Rich,
a physician and professor of med-
icine and epidemiology at Brown
University who co-founded the
Center for Prisoner Health and
Human Rights. “But the popula-
tion you have [in prisons] is not a
young, healthy population. It’s
aging.”
In recent weeks, jails and pris-
ons have suspended visitations
and pledged to increase cleaning
and sanitation. They have also
promised to conduct regular
screenings of inmates and staff,
checking temperatures and ask-
ing whether they have flu-like
symptoms. Advocates for the in-
carcerated say they fear the coro-
navirus could cause devastating
effects if it spreads inside correc-
tional facilities.
More than 2 million people are
incarcerated in a prison or jail,
according to federal statistics.
That does not include the regular
flow of officers, other staff, attor-
neys and visitors who make their
way in and out every day.
Kevin Kempf, director of the
Correctional Leaders Associa-
tion, said that to protect inmates
and staff, about half of its 58
members have chosen to shut
down visitation at the prisons
they manage. It’s a difficult deci-
sion that causes tensions to rise,
so many have put it off as long as
they could, he said.
“Our directors are wringing
their hands over this,” Kempf
said. “It’s a switch that is hard to
unflip, and we are hearing that
coronavirus will be peaking in
about two months. That’s a long
time. We don’t want to see ten-
sions rising at a time like this. It’s
gut wrenching.”
Many prisons and jails haveJails and prisons
across the country
suspend visitation
Virus’s spread exposes
vulnerabilities within
inmate population