Alabama prison officials at work on coronavirus plan

Alabama Prisons

Inmates sit in a treatment dorm at Staton Correctional Facility in Elmore, Ala., Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler) APAP

Officials with the Alabama Department of Corrections say they are working with Gov. Kay Ivey’s COVID-19 task force on a plan for containing coronavirus in the state’s prison system.

ADOC spokeswoman Samantha Rose said the department is currently following guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH).

Last Friday, Ivey named State Health Officer Scott Harris to lead a task force to oversee efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus in Alabama. Rose said the department is working with the task force and ADPH “to review policies, procedures, and containment protocols” that would be impacted by an outbreak of coronavirus within the system.

As of Tuesday morning, there have been no reports of coronavirus in Alabama, but state and municipal leaders are continuing to take steps to prevent its potential spread.

“The Department is taking proactive steps to protect the health and well-being of inmates and staff, including the distribution of educational information on prevention and intervention as well as screening inmates for signs and symptoms of the disease, as recommended by the ADPH,” Rose said in a statement. “The ADOC will work with the ADPH and other state agencies to develop our Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP), as the Department has in previous years in formulating our pandemic response.”

Rose said ADOC would not make any further comment as “this continues to be a dynamic process with evolving information and resources.”

In 2018, an inmate diagnosed with meningitis died at Ventress Correctional Facility in Barbour County, where the ADPH monitored an outbreak of the bacterial disease. Last year about 26 inmates were diagnosed with scabies during an outbreak at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

Other states are formulating their own prison plans in case of outbreaks, while New York State announced this week that its inmates were making hand sanitizer, which will be available to governments, mass transit, schools and inside the prisons themselves. The New York Post quoted officials saying it cost about $6 to make a gallon jug. Alabama inmates make janitorial and sanitary supplies through Alabama Correctional Industries. That includes all-purpose cleaner, anti-bacterial liquid hand soap, disinfectants, bleach and other products.

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