VTDigger is posting regular updates on the coronavirus in Vermont on this page. You can also subscribe here for regular email updates on the coronavirus. If you have any questions, thoughts or updates on how Vermont is responding to COVID-19, contact us at coronavirus@vtdigger.org
The state Department of Corrections is taking emergency measures to help slow the spread of Covid-19 inside the Northwest State Correctional Facility, but is not implementing blanket testing of all the inmates in the facility.
That’s because it doesn’t have enough of a supply to test all 200 inmates.
The St. Albans prison was placed on lockdown Monday after the department reported that two staff members who worked inside the facility had tested for the coronavirus.
One staff member was a correctional officer, the other was a community correctional officer from the probation and parole office who had been “redeployed” to help with staffing at the Northwest prison, according to corrections officials.
Last week, the department announced that another staff member at the facility had also tested positive for COVID-19, but had only “limited” contact with prisoners.
Alan Cormier, Vermont Department of Corrections facilities director, said Tuesday that “blanket” testing of all staff and inmates at the Northwest prison is not an option the department can do at this time.
“We’re struggling to get tests just like everybody is,” he said. “I think we have five tests at each facility. We’re waiting on more from the Department of Health.”
He added, “We do not have the number of tests out there to test all of the inmates. I don’t know if we’ll ever get to that number.”
Cormier said in determining whether an inmate gets tested for Covid-19, the department looks at the “top” three symptoms for the coronavirus: fever, sore throat, and respiratory issues.
“The first thing we’re doing is a strep throat test and a flu test,” he said. “Those we can get confirmation on almost immediately. If those tests come back negative then we’re doing the Covid test.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, Cormier said, the department was awaiting the Covid-19 test result for one inmate at the Northwest prison.
The lockdown at the facility will run 14 days from April 3, the last time one of the correctional officers who has tested positive for Covid-19 had been at the prison.
Most inmates, Cormier said, are being held in two-person cells. He said there are no three-person cells at the Northwest facility.
A lockdown means inmates will remain in their cells, with meals and medication brought to them, and movements are limited to emergency and hygiene purposes, according to the corrections department, and each inmate and staff member at the Northwest facility are getting two cloth masks each.
Inmates are having their temperatures checked three times a day, while staff are checked when they enter the building, Cormier said.
Cormier said during a briefing with reporters Tuesday that the department is also working to boost its supply of hand sanitizer, and lifted its restriction on alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
“The access to hand sanitizer is the same as the rest of the country, it is very limited and very hard to come by,” he said.
The department, Cormier said, has reached an agreement with SILO Distillery in Springfield to provide bulk alcohol-based hand sanitizer, with probation and parole staff helping to fill bottles and distributing them to the correctional facilities.
“We will continue doing that on a regular basis,” he said, adding, “We do have adequate supply, but it’s not all alcohol-based.”
Cormier did say that some inmates, at Northwest and other facilities, are being isolated in spaces that had previously been set aside for segregation.
“We are using some of our segregation units for Covid-19 isolation,” he said, adding that inmates are allowed more personal property in those cells than is typical for segregation units.
Cormier said he has heard that some inmates are “reluctant” to report Covid-19 symptoms.
“Upon hearing that information I directed all the superintendents to really increase their messaging to the population,” Cormier said.
In addition to the three corrections staff members at the Northwest prison, another staff member who officials said did not have contact with inmates had tested positive two weeks ago at the Newport prison.
The Vermont inmate population as of Tuesday was 1,441. That’s a drop from the 1,642 prisoners on March 13. That number has fallen mainly due to fewer people getting arrested and coming into the facility.
Groups, including the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, have been calling on the corrections department and the Scott administration to release as “many inmates as possible.”
Those organizations are especially seeking the release of those most at-risk to contract the coronavirus, such as older inmates and those with medical conditions.
So far, the corrections department has rebuffed those requests to release or furlough inmates based on those medical factors alone.
Falko Schilling, advocacy director for the Vermont ACLU, said Tuesday that the latest positive tests of staff members at the Northwest prison shows how urgent the need is for the corrections department to continue to work to reduce the incarcerated population.
“We know that folks within the department and within the administration are taking this seriously, Schilling said, “but we need to start to look at even more opportunities to reduce the number of people who are incarcerated.”
Correction: The Northwest State Correctional Facility is in St. Albans, not Swanton.
