Hinds County sheriff discusses COVID-19 outbreak

More than 70 inmates and employees at Hinds County jails have tested positive for COVID-19.

Morning, that number has gone up to 60now,With the exception of one individualdetainee.

The rest are showingasymptomatic.

Uh there's been one thathas actually had to have medicaltreatment.

So that's what we are rightnow, numbers wise.

And it's notunderstanding that you have 14 stafferswho are also tested positive.

Yes.And it is one of those under share AlanWhite.

Yes,I understand.

He'sbecause it's taking taking a he'staking a punch from this from myfacebook post.

Well, if I would onlyrespond to you by saying that's what itsays on his post, I don't really knowbeyond that.

I know he tested positiveand he's at home sick, but as far asany further description, I'm notprepared to do that.

Okay.

Uh whatwhat's the situation?

Have inmates beengetting vaccinated for covid?

And Iguess they have to be asked to do it.They can't they're not you can'tmandate inmates get tested because Imean, get vaccinated, right?

You'recorrect.

Andthey've been offered the the shot on atleast two different occasions.

Somehave taken advantage of it, some havenot.So you're right in the fact that wecannot force anybody.

And I want tomake sure I make this clear.

Uh we haveuh detainees, right?

And the reason whyI want to make the distinction is theindividuals that we have housed in ourfacility are all pretrial.

So in theeyes of the criminal justice system,they have not been convicted of anycrime.

So I just want to make sure Imake that distinction.

Okay.

And do youknow what I mean?

Obviously you believethis is the delta variant that we'regetting a lot about these infections.That part haven't been described to mein particular.

And I don't like to makeassumptions.

But obviously we areexperiencing uh and uptakethe girl took their area.

It was notonly here, but all over the country.

Sopeople that we have housed in ourfacility are going to reflect what'sgoing on in the general public.Uh, and also, you know, we continuewith testing and when you test more,you get, you're going to have morepositive results because you got moreout into the community.You mean, are you talking about inmatesor employees?

Talking about boats?Right, okay.

And any changes inprotocols right now, Are youprohibiting visitors or what?

Anychanges since you have this outbreakand accepting inmates or detainees tothe detention ship?

Not with acceptingwe can't really turn around a felonysuspect.

We just have to isolate them.And, and we will, we're already in theprocess of sanitizing the facility on aregular basis.

We're looking at somethings too, uh, increase.

As far asthat's concerned, we're doingeverything we can to keep the facilityclean and to isolate those divisionsthat happened that have tested positive.And you said with the exception of oneinmate who had to get medical, did theydidn't have to go to the hospital?

Yes.Do you know what their what theircondition is?

No, I don't.

And the restof this huge number, you say they'reasymptomatic.

It's cool.And are those inmates been isolated?We're doing a rapid testing and youcome into the facility and we found outthat you have tested positive, then weare isolating you and housing you awayfrom the general population.

And thereare no security concerns forwith having a house.

These folks whotested positive.

Well, there's alwaysconcerns, you know, we're operating adetention facility so that's everpresent.

But I believe that we aredoing the best we can to do what theCDC tells us to do in the Department ofHealth and we're going to continue tofollow those guidelines.

You don't havea mass mandate for employees or I don'tknow if you can make that amazed bymass.

Well, what we've done is we'vetold people, I'm speaking of employees,uh, you either need to be, uh, haveyour shot or you need to wear a mask.And I believe that we can enforce thatwith the staff.And was that mandate in effect beforeyou have to outbreak?

No.

Yeah.

Sothat's that's new following thisoutbreak.

Well, yes, it is.

So theseinmates, I mean that the employees willhave to be vaccinated or they will berequired to wear a mask.

That iscorrect.And what do you want to say to familymembers who have inmates in thedetention center for some of them whomay have underlying medical conditions,who might be concerned about theirloved one is housed at the detentioncenter.

Whoa, I mean, here's the,here's the real deal, the,the covid virus he's ever presentthroughout the world.

Being detentioncenter is not any different than whatgoes on in society as a whole.

Justlike we got through talking about a fewminutes ago, we're doing everythingthat we can keep the facility cleaningto identify individuals who have testedpositive and isolated.

So we're doingeverything we can and we're looking atmore resources to try to improve thesituation as we move forward.

Butpeople can be assured that we're goingto do everything that we can to keeptheir loved ones and everybody elsesafe.

Now, you talked about what you'redoing with employees in each anymandates or changes required forinmates to try to limit this outbreakor to prevent a future outbreaks.

Allresources that are made available tostaff are made available to detainees.We just can't mandate that they take ashot.

Can't mandate uh, that type anytype of medical treatment like that,that they absolutely refused.

So inthat particular standpoint, we're justgoing to encourage them to doeverything to help us to keep them safe.And do you have adequate resources interms of personnel and finances to beable to do you think adequately addressthis outright?

Right now?

I don'tbelieve that resources are issued andgot some things that were alreadystockpiled clinic, different types ofcleaning products, uh, hand sanitizers,PPE equipment.

We got plenty of that.We're looking at adding to the stockthat we have, uh, because it appearsthat this particular variant isexpanding at a really quick rate.

Wedon't want to be victimized bypotential, according, that wouldprohibit us from getting resources, sowe're addressing that as we speak.