When recently asked about how the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 was effecting the Marshall County Jail, even with the recent spikes and declines in local cases, it took me a minute to put into words how this affects the Jail/Sheriff’s Office.
I first thought, “well we put protocols in place to help prevent the virus from being introduced into the jail by several daily disinfecting spray baths to the facility, requiring that all visitors who enter the jail are required to wear a mask or face covering, monitor the temperatures of newly admitted inmates, employees and visitors, keeping incoming inmates isolated as long as possible prior to having them placed into general population, and the constant monitoring of all inmates in the jail.”
As I was thinking about a response, I realized that its certainly not just the inmate’s health and wellbeing that keeps me up at night. I constantly think about the domino effect that could potentially happen if one of our Detention Officers were to become infected. It’s very possible if a detention officer were to become infected and go unnoticed, it would start a domino effect that certainly could affect all law enforcement in Marshall County.
Allow me to explain:
If a Detention Officer were to become contagious, they could infect not only the inmates who are confined in the jail, but could also infect Deputies, Madill Police Officers, Kingston Police Officers, Highway Patrolman, Game Wardens, and Department of Corrections employees. As each of these listed Officers visit the Jail several times a week.
The same Officers also work side by side with our Emergency 911 dispatchers, our administration, and each other’s agencies. This does not include the EMS workers and Firemen that work side by side with these Law Enforcement Officers on incidents such as vehicle accidents. This fear is also a two way door; if one of the above officers are contagious and come into the jail it would have the same result, which could potentially put the majority of Marshall County Law enforcement into a quarantine state.
This event would leave no one to be waiting by a phone when citizens call 911, no law enforcement officers to respond to domestics, no EMS units to come to crashes, no Guards to take care of the inmates at the Jail and very few resources to call upon to assist.
I am very thankful for the good fortune we have had in keeping our Jail COVID free to this point, and through the grace of God, pray that our protocols will continue to keep us safe from a potentially catastrophic outcome if we were to have to endure a worst case scenario as listed above.
So, in closing, we take every precaution we have available to us in an effort to keep the virus out of our jail, so as to protect not only our inmates, but our emergency and First Responders as well as our citizens.