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Fulton County Chief Jailer Says Crime Isn't Down, But Inmates Are Keeping COVID-19 Away
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Despite strong encouragment for folks to quarantine themselves and slow the spread of COVID-19, people are still out committing crime, Fulton County Jail officials say.
The trick now to avoiding coronavirus is to keep the jail sanitized and keep sick inmates out — or quarantined in cells, chief jailer Col. Mark Adger told GPB News.GPB’s Ellen Eldridge reports on changes at Fulton County’s jail designed to keep both staff and inmates healthy.
Jail officials started screening inmates for COVID-19 last month. They followed a similar screening process as nursing homes, watching for symptoms and stepping up how often shared spaces are cleaned.
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"We saw that infectious disease can affect the jail regardless of how widespread it becomes," Adger said.
The jail doesn't have test kits but one inmate with symptoms has been quarantined as a precaution.
"If they come in here with a temperature of 100.5 degrees, we're going to slap a mask on them and put them in isolation where they're medically monitored for the appropriate period of time, which right now is 14 days," Adger said.
Two people have been turned away. One was an inmate scheduled to be transferred from a jail in DeKalb County had been exposed to COVID-19 so Adger decided not to bring her to Fulton County's jail. The other was someone who had a fever and Adger sent that person to Grady Memorial Hospital for a checkup rather than bring them into the jail.
"We're trying to screen people before they even enter the building so we can make a decision early on whether or not we're going to take them," Adger said.
MORE: Fulton County To Release Inmates Early In Light Of Pandemic
Law enforcement partners have also agreed not to make arrests for low-level, nonviolent crime.
Cops can write citations for many misdemeanor offenses and people accused of crimes can appear in court rather than processing through the jail. Despite the desire to keep numbers of people incarcerated low, Adger said before the COVID-19 pandemic between 70 to 100 people were booked in to the jail on a daily basis. Lately, officials book about 60 to 65 people a day, he said, but they are releasing more people from jail more quickly.
"So that hopefully will drive down our population rather than spike it," Adger said.
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Anyone arrested has a right to appear before a judge, who will determine whether a bond is required to leave jail and wait for a court date. That won't change, but courts have scaled back on the number of cases they see.
"Once they get to the first appearance process and the regular machinery of justice starts to turn, that may slow significantly because of the fact that we're not doing grand juries to indict cases and the judges are not holding trial jury trials," Adger said.
Officials are taking #coronavirus seriously at Fulton County’s jail. Reporting about these and other changes for @gpbnews @FultonSheriff pic.twitter.com/SrJWXVefw0— Ellen Eldridge (@EllenEldridge27) March 19, 2020
For those who work in the jail and for those who have no choice but to live there, keeping the virus away means extra cleaning. Inmates who previously cleaned surfaces three times a day are now using an electrostatic sprayer to apply disinfectant without wiping surfaces.
Visitation is suspended and even the chief pastor discontinued services as part of the social distancing efforts. All staff members are prohibited from working while sick.
"We've sent people home with just the common cold out of an abundance of caution," Adger said.
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