GREENFIELD — Some inmates within the Franklin County jail feel the facility is not doing enough to keep inmates safe after two cellmates were returned to their unit last week following seven days in quarantine.
But Sheriff Christopher Donelan said extraordinary measures have been taken to ensure the health of everyone inside during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a jail officer who tested positive is resting at home indefinitely.
Dustin King, an inmate, said he believes the jail is risking the lives of inmates and staff members because the administration did not want to quarantine the cellmates any longer. He said this week his multiple sclerosis and asthma make him more susceptible to the novel coronavirus that is spreading like wildfire around the world. King, 33, said he is convinced he will die if he contracts the virus.
King and a 31-year-old fellow inmate who spoke to the Greenfield Recorder last week on the condition of anonymity said staffers waited 12 hours before moving the cellmates in question to quarantine.
But Donelan said the cellmates in question were quarantined as soon as one was found to have an elevated temperature. The sheriff said that inmate tested negative for COVID-19 and the two were returned to their unit only after his temperature was back to normal.
Donelan said the infected officer, whom he declined to identify, tested positive while using vacation days. The sheriff said the officer, who has been employed at the jail for roughly seven years, has not been to work in more than a week.
“So we do not think there is any risk inside the facility,” he noted.
Donelan said the officer was assigned to the jail’s transportation unit and had limited activity in the facility. He said he had not been in the housing units and had no direct contact with inmates.
King said he is also concerned because 25 to 28 inmates of his unit have still been eating in the usual common area and requests to have meals in their cells have been denied. Donelan said that typically half the inmates of each of the jail’s four units eat at the same time to limit crowding. He said this precaution is more strictly enforced now due to the pandemic.
King said he also must stand next to other inmates when in line to receive medication for his multiple sclerosis.
Donelan said the jail has taken the pandemic seriously from the start and has been working to ensure the facility is safe. The sheriff said all inmates last week were given procedure masks — the type people would see professionals wear at a medical office — when the quarantine started and were told to take care of them due to the well-documented shortage the nation faces. After two days, Donelan said, those masks were replaced with washable cloth ones made through the sewing program at the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow.
“They’re making masks like crazy down there,” Donelan said, adding that it is the same program that makes inmate uniforms.
The sheriff said the cloth masks are laundered on site every two days. He also said jail employees in designated high-risk areas — such as where the two unidentified cellmates were quarantined — have been given N95 face masks, which reportedly filter out 95 percent of airborne particles.
Donelan also said the jail decided to reduce close-quarters contact by releasing roughly 20 minimum-security inmates, who will finish their sentences at home while being electronically monitored using ankle bracelets. The sheriff said inmates approaching the end of their sentences were picked for release. About 160 inmates remain at the jail.
Donelan, in his 10th year as sheriff, said everyone is trying to navigate through these unprecedented times. He said surfaces are sanitized and non-essential staffers are staying home. Donelan also said it has been about a month since visitors have been allowed into the facility.
“There’s no game plan for this. We’re just kind of taking it as it comes,” he said, adding that all measures taken are based on science and consultation with local physician Dr. Ruth Potee.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.