by a contributing writer
Fears of COVID-19 outbreaks among prisoners and correctional employees have begun to be realized. Department of Corrections efforts to mitigate infections have been notably effective, yet confirmed cases now include 13 inmates and five staff, as well as one inmate in the Fairfax County jail. Dozens more are being monitored. Given limited testing and asymptomatic carriers, it’s reasonable to assume the problem is larger than the test numbers convey. Inmates, staff, and family members are on edge and share a common fear of what might come next. Prisoner rights’ groups locally, nationally, and around the world are petitioning for conditional releases and alternative forms of supervision to limit the casualties.
It might just be time for Governor Ralph Northam to employ his emergency powers and resources to ensure that, should there be a major outbreak within a Virginia prison or jail, inmates and staff can be assured of a safe environment, even if requires shifting some to alternative or temporary facilities.
The Virginia Department of Corrections and the Virginia court system have already taken a wide array of actions in response to the pandemic and are working through a task force. There are comprehensive pandemic sanitation plans, modified lockdowns, cancelled live visitations, daily monitoring for symptoms, and suspension of court/trial activities. Some prisoners (offenders) in the Virginia Correctional Enterprises are even manufacturing simple face masks for use by guards and prisoners.
The Virginia Beach Sheriff’s office moved quickly to identify 60 prisoners who were eligible for GPS-monitored home incarceration – other jails need to follow that lead. These are important steps. But even with the possibility of extensive monitored releases or furloughs, it’s likely not going to be enough: With so many state and local facilities, it seems inevitable that some will become serious hotspots.
The state’s 37,000+ inmates (60,000 including local jails) and the thousands of corrections officers are facing risks similar to those found in nursing homes. Consider that on Friday Northam noted Central Virginia’s most intense hotspot was a care/rehabilitation center: Westminster Canterbury in western Henrico with 16 deaths, 92 testing positive (53 of them without symptoms, which increases the risk of others interacting with them). Sixty nursing homes in Maryland have COVID-19 cases, one with 99 confirmed cases. Imagine the same scenario in a prison, where even under normal conditions it’s challenging to oversee inmates’ health, many of whom are older with chronic conditions.
On Friday Northam described how the state was undertaking construction of three temporary field hospitals in anticipation of hospitals being overwhelmed: in the Dulles Expo Center, and in the Hampton Roads and the Richmond Convention Centers. But there was no mention of further contingencies plans for prisons.
The Department of Corrections’ task force is working to ensure adequate sanitation, correctional and medical staffing, as well as food service. But the department also needs to develop the capacity to rapidly “de-densify” and humanely quarantine prisoner populations where hotspots emerge, as well as mitigate the psychological and physical impact of what could be months of modified lockdowns. Such goals would not be easy to achieve, even with months of preparation and deep resources. But we don’t have that much time nor the resources for conforming to every conventional guideline.
Options to “de-densify” a correctional facility might include quickly deploying prefabricated or modular units. Such structures are already commercially produced specifically for Corrections. Ideally, if these facilities were located off-site, potentially infected inmates wouldn’t be shuttled in crowded buses without adequate personal protection.
The physical security, housing, and management of prisoners is something best left up to experts. But to put in place workable contingencies within weeks, those experts will need creative logistical support, emergency resource commitments, and the administrative flexibility to act very quickly – things that can only happen with the support of Governor Northam’s emergency powers.
The extensive emergency management efforts by the Virginia Department of Corrections to prevent or limit outbreaks deserves great credit for holding the line as long as it has. But if the nursing home hotspots are any model, there needs to be a clear backup plan, perhaps equal in clarity and scope to the field hospitals the State is building. The COVID-19 pandemic has given us fair warning to take action. Correctional staff and inmates – and families of both – deserve assurances that the state understands and is fully prepared for what could happen next.
After every crisis, we can count on a commission investigating what we knew and didn’t know – or might have done, if we only had had better insights or different priorities. Since we already have the insights, perhaps we can set the priorities and get done what we know could save lives.
The author is a researcher who lives in the Richmond area. He has asked to remain anonymous but is known to the publisher. — JAB
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