The Bartholomew County Jail is taking a number of steps and precautions to keep COVID-19 from spreading out of control.
Eleven inmates in the jail tested positive for the virus between March and December of last year, according to the department. That is less than half a percentage point of the 2,500-plus inmates who were booked into the local lockup last year.
Incarcerated people are infected by the virus at a rate more than five times higher than the nation’s overall rate, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. The death rate of inmates, which is 39 per 100,000 individuals, is also higher than the national rate of 29 per 100,000, the journal states.
In Columbus, all jail inmates with the disease were able to either be released or placed in quarantine, Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers said.
“(Our) staff has worked diligently to keep COVID-19 out of our jail,” Myers said. “We continue to monitor this and will do so until COVID is no longer a threat.”
Statistics show staff members working throughout Myers’ department remain at risk. A total of 19 employees, including merit deputies, correction officers, reserve deputies and support staff have tested positive since early last year, the report states. All were quarantined in their homes, administrators say.
As of Wednesday, there were no staff members showing any symptoms of the disease. However, there were seven inmates displaying symptoms that day, sheriff’s spokeswoman Judy Jackson said.
“Five of those seven tested positive, and were quarantined,” Jackson said. “One refused to be tested, while another who had less than 30 days left on his sentence was released from the jail.”
On Wednesday, all of Bartholomew County reported 6,340 positive tests (up 30) with 97 deaths (up one). To reduce the risk of infection, the jail is working with the courts to decrease the inmate population, the release states. In addition, staff will be moved and cell blocks are being re-adjusted to make more room for inmates in and out of quarantine, jail officials state.
“We have no shortage of space to quarantine inmates,” Jackson said.
In 2019, the jail’s average population was 253 inmates, But after COVID-19 became a factor, that average was reduced to 206 last year, according to the report. Myers emphasized that only low-level inmates with no threat to public safety were released.
In other steps to reduce the disease, visitors are being restricted into the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s office, while the jail has resumed its no visitation policy, the release states.
Myers says the jail and his law enforcement division implement all safety precautions issued by the Bartholomew County Health Department, as well as seek th
