NC prisons to quarantine COVID-19 exposed inmates at Durham hotel before release home

Over 100 people exposed to COVID-19 in North Carolina’s prisons may be housed at a Durham hotel starting this month to quarantine.

As part of a pilot program, the N.C. Department of Public Safety will rent the 114-room Quality Inn & Suites on Hillsborough Road, across the street from the Croasdaile Country Club and minutes from Duke University Hospital. The state will use the hotel to temporarily house people who have completed their sentences and were exposed to COVID-19 in prison.

DPS signed a contract with the hotel for 90 days, with an option to renew and a tentative start date of July 15.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency Public Assistance Grant Program and the state will fund the program, with FEMA covering 75% of costs and the state covering 25% through the CARES Act, the federal coronavirus relief fund.

With all expenses combined, including renting rooms, feeding occupants, and contracted services like security and health care, the state expects the program to cost $1 million, said DPS communications officer Greg Thomas in an email to The News & Observer.

No other suitable quarantine options, says state

Those picked for the program will “have no other suitable residence plan in which to complete their quarantine period,” he said. The department plans to relocate them to their home counties once they finish their quarantine.

“It does make good sense for an initiative like that to support those being released that have finished their time,” said Jim Groves, Durham County’s emergency management director. “We don’t want them going home and getting moms and dads, uncles and aunts or whoever potentially sick.”

But Groves, who said he found out about DPS contract with the hotel June 12, noted that Durham County is already housing people at another hotel.

“The fact that it ended up in Durham caused us a little bit of pause earlier on, just because our numbers continue to rise, because of COVID, and with everything that we’re working really hard on with our Urban Ministries shelter and the Research Triangle Park Marriott.” Groves said.

The county contracted with Durham Marriott-RTP to rent 225 rooms from April 10 to July 9 to house people from the downtown shelter during the coronavirus pandemic.

“There’s just obviously a lot that’s been going on in Durham County for quite a while now,” Groves said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Durham County had 4,176 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 67 deaths, according to the county’s health department.

The News & Observer asked about the program’s social-distancing protocols, testing regimens for hotel occupants and staff, and how officials plan to ensure the virus doesn’t spread from the hotel into the surrounding community. Tim Moose, chief deputy secretary of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice, said through a spokesperson that many details are being worked out.

The N&O contacted the mayor and several City Council members by phone and email for comment on the contract but had not heard back from any of them by 4 p.m Tuesday.

Gov. Cooper ordered universal testing in prisons

In April, the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina sued the state for its handling of the coronavirus in state prisons and argued for the release of vulnerable inmates.

In June, Gov. Roy Cooper announced universal testing in prisons had begun for all 31,200 inmates.

Thomas did not say whether those quarantined at the Quality Inn & Suites will include people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in prison or how many and which state prisons will send offenders to the Durham hotel.

“It is important to reiterate this pilot project is being done consistent with FEMA requirements for non-congregant housing during a pandemic,” Thomas said in an email.

Although state law requires prisons to release inmates once they complete their sentences, the program will be a “safer alternative” to allowing them to return to their home communities, Thomas said. Probation officers will watch over the hotel residents as they quarantine and enforce their post-release requirements, he said.

Officials hope program minimizes COVID-19 spread

Durham’s Emergency Management department is collaborating with the Durham County Sheriff’s Office, Public Health Director Rodney Jenkins, the Criminal Justice Resource Center, and other officials to plan everything out.

Groves said he and other county and city officials see value in the state’s pilot program.

“If we do it right, it could minimize the spread of this disease across our state,” he said.

This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 4:42 PM with the headline "NC prisons to quarantine COVID-19 exposed inmates at Durham hotel before release home."