Officials address concerns raised by activist group

A local activist group sounded the alarm this week about what it said is a lack of COVID-19 precautionary measures at the Hamilton County Jail after a conversation with the jail’s chief of corrections, something the sheriff argues is a misunderstanding.

In news release and Facebook post, Concerned Citizens for Justice said Chief of Corrections Joe Fowler told them on Monday that hand sanitizer is not being provided to inmates and masks are only being provided to certain individuals. And despite reporting that 100% of staff and inmates were tested on April 30, Fowler said there were still eight people — three staff members and five inmates — who needed to be retested.

Sheriff’s office spokesman Matt Lea said that 100% of staff and inmates were tested, but eight were tested on May 1 rather than April 30.

“The courier did not pick up the tests from the jail over the weekend to transport to the testing facility,” he said. “So, the eight were tested again Monday, May 4.”

They were retested to “ensure a quality sample” because “it was felt it would be best to have fresh samples,” Lea said.

The results for all of the tests, including the eight retested on Monday, were negative, he said.

As for the lack of masks and hand sanitizer, Sheriff Jim Hammond said the jail doesn’t provide masks “because we’re still behind the loop in getting enough.

“The prisoners won’t wear ’em. You can get one or two to wear ’em, most of them take ’em off and throw ‘em in the garbage can. You cannot force them to wear them, so that’s just a waste of time to do that.”

During the phone call with the advocacy group, Fowler told members the jail is taking into consideration how many masks it has while following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other state and local agencies.

All staff, inmate workers and new arrestees are issued a mask, he said. But inmates who have been at the jail for more than 14 days and are showing no symptoms are housed together and are not given a mask.

General population inmates are housed together based on their classification, which is based on their alleged crime. That means several inmates can be housed in one cell, depending on how many it’s designed to hold, Hammond said.

The CDC states that if a facility chooses to routinely quarantine all new intakes before integrating into the facility’s general population, face masks are not necessary. That’s because masks don’t protect a person from infection. They only limit the possibility that an infected person can spread the virus.

Hammond said inmates are only moved into the general population after having been at jail for 14 days and after having been tested, though the Hamilton County Health Department has only agreed to give them 20 tests per week, he said.

But that’s not enough, advocacy group member Nate King said, noting several inmates may be housed in one cell.

“Our argument is that they’re not following CDC guidelines if you’ve got 30 people living in a cell,” King said.

“… with the newly arrested people being confined to 30-person holding cells, it’s only a matter of time for the virus to eventually spread throughout the jail, prison and our community as a whole,” he said, adding that more inmates should have lowered bonds or be released on cashless bonds.

Since March, local judges have been addressing the issue of lowering the jail’s population on a caseby-case basis by modifying bail amounts or suspending the balances of some sentences if close to expiration and, in some cases, releasing arrestees on cashless bonds.

Activist groups have called for an overall policy that could more dramatically reduce the jail’s population.

“The prisoners won’t wear[the masks]. You can get one or two to wear ’em, most of them take ’em off and throw ’em in the garbage can.”

– JIM HAMMOND, HAMILTON COUNTY SHERIFF