LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Only 38 of more than 2,220 inmates in Louisville’s jails have tested positive for COVID-19, and only one has developed symptoms, a jail official said.
Steve Durham, assistant director of Louisville Metro Department of Corrections, said 27 of the 38 who have tested positive remain in custody.
Inmates who test positive are transferred to a "medical isolation" unit on the jail's second floor with others who have contracted the disease. Inmates who develop severe symptoms would be taken to University Hospital.
Durham said people who are taken into custody can be tested within hours of being arrested, but tests are voluntary. He encouraged family members to urge their loved ones in jail to get tested. Tests are conducted five days a week, and results typically arrive within 48 hours, thanks to the agency’s partnership with the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health & Wellness.
Durham said he hopes inmates who are housed together have the attitude of, "Let's make a bond to keep each other safe" when it comes to getting tested.
Eleven dorms, which contain anywhere between 15 to 25 inmates apiece, are under quarantine, Durham said. Those dorms house individuals who were exposed to COVID-19 and may have contracted the disease.
Durham credited city officials' "committed and cautious" approach to releasing individuals for helping the jail reduce its population at the outset of the pandemic. He said the jail is below capacity with an in-bed population of 1,221 inmates.
Jail officials have asked the county attorney and commonwealth attorney's offices to identify low-risk inmates who have lower bonds or community-release bonds, as well as inmates with sentences of 90 days or less and could be released into the community. Inmates 60 years and older with health conditions — diabetes, asthma, heart conditions — that may put them at a higher risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms are also being examined for release "without significantly impacting public safety."
However, Durham said conditions are still crowded in minimum-custody units, which he said are serving about 87% of the jail's population.
"You can't just spread those out everywhere," he said. "You have to reserve space for medium custody and maximum security, and so you still have crowding looking conditions even though we had reduced the population by hundreds from the start."
Inmates are provided multiple masks so they won't go without while one is being laundered. Jail staff is conducting "around-the-clock" cleaning, which Durham said isn't new.
Nonetheless, he said the jail is dealing with some unique challenges.
"Even as hard as you work to keep people clean and keep spaces safe, you just don't know where that individual is obtaining and bringing the virus in, (and) not everyone who comes in volunteers for a test," he said.
Out of the more than 300 staffers who have been tested, 25 have tested positive, according to Durham, who said fewer than five staffers are monitoring symptoms under quarantine.
Durham said he understands people’s concerns for their loved ones in jail during a pandemic. Some of people’s frustrations stem from visitation restrictions, but Durham said that unlike nursing homes, jails cannot easily come up with creative ways to bring loved ones together, such as Skype calls or window visits.
But he assured people that jail officials are heeding people’s concerns.
"We are listening. We are paying attention. We take this very seriously," Durham said. "We don't want anybody to have coronavirus while they're here, and if someone develops it, we're looking at them (and getting) them onto the medical floor.
"I can't take away all of your worry," Durham added. "Let us do some of the worrying for you. We're doing it."
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