Jailers face particular hurdle when providing vaccine to inmates

There is a lot of national attention right now concerning coronavirus vaccinations in jails and prisons.

Wtva's wayne hereford is live at one local jail where he talked to the sheriff about what plans he has for his inmates.

Lee county sheriff jim johnson said that his inmates may or may not get the vaccine depending on if they are a state or local inmate.

"the problem we have is that we are not a long-term care facility which means most of our inmates are in and out within four or five days."

Sheriff jim johnson said that presents a problem in providing the vaccine for his inmates.

'so the problem you have with trying to get all of the inmates the vaccine,it would be that twenty or twenty-one day break that you have from the first to the second shot."

Johnson said he has talked with members of the state health department about the issue.

He said that his state inmates stand a better chance of getting a vaccine right now.

"we do know that the mississippi department of corrections is working on some type of plan to vaccinate the state inmates which are here for a longer period of time which will be the state's responsibility."

Johnson said that he will work with the state to get that done.

He said he has a medical staff around the clock that monitors the situation.

He said if an inmate happens to test positive for the virus and is a misdemeanor criminal he will try to get them removed from the jail.

The sheriff said he does have limited isolation facilities for quarantine.

He said long-term inmates are isolated anyway.

He said he has kept the coronavirus numbers down here.

"we treat fever and cough and sinus everyday here.

The covid is not any different treatment.

Its just that the contagious part of it ,passing it from one person to the next is a problem but it is a jail and we just do the best that we can."

Sheriff johnson said that right now there are about 210 inmates in the jail here .

He said those numbers are about to drastically drop because of changes at the jail due to a lack of employees.

Reporting live in tupelo wayne hereford wtva nine news.