The St. Albans prison is on full lockdown after two staff members tested positive for Covid-19.
According to the state Department of Corrections, officials received news Monday of the positive test results for the two staff members and put the Northwest State Correctional Facility on lockdown.
Other steps the corrections department has taken, according to a statement issued early Tuesday, included contact tracing and scheduling mass testing of all staff Tuesday and prisoners on Wednesday.
No individuals will be transferred from the St. Albans prison pending test results.
One of the staff members who has tested positive was last in the facility on Dec. 23, according to the corrections department, and the second staff member was not in the prison during the infectious period.
Rachel Feldman, a spokesperson for the corrections department, said Tuesday that the “full” lockdown will continue at the facility until the results come back from the latest round of testing of inmates and staff.
During a full lockdown, Feldman said, inmates will remain in their cells, with meals and medication brought to them.
Two weeks ago, 143 staff members at the facility were tested for Covid-19 with all the results coming back negative. The last mass testing of prisoners at the St. Albans facility took place Dec. 21, with all the results coming back negative, according to the corrections department.
There are currently 181 inmates at the St. Albans prison.
Across the state’s correctional system since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic early this year, a total of 32 staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus.
The St. Albans facility had been the location of a Covid-19 outbreak earlier this year, with 45 prisoners testing positive for the coronavirus as well as 18 staff members.
Vermont Defender General Matthew Valerio, whose department also includes the state’s Prisoners’ Rights Office, said Tuesday that while he is concerned about the spread of Covid-19 in the correctional facilities he is also worried about the effect of lockdowns and quarantining on inmates’ mental health.
“We have significant concerns about prolonged lockdown of prisoners due to Covid,” he said. “I think what we’re seeing is more self-harm incidents and the potential for even more self-harm incidents the longer this Covid situation goes on.”
He said he plans to meet with James Baker, Vermont’s interim corrections commissioner, soon about working with an expert to help address issues associated with prisoner segregation and isolation.
‘The longer this drags on, the more of a problem it becomes,” he said.
He talked of two cases of self-harm that have happened with prisoners in isolation, both involving inmates who had recently come into facilities and were placed in quarantine to ensure they were virus-free.
In one case earlier this month an inmate killed himself and in the other from this summer a prisoner was seriously injured, he said.
“The cure to prevent Covid from coming into the facility,” Valerio said, “is becoming as much of a problem as the solution.”
