Use of masks varies at NC jails. Experts say that’s risky — and not just for inmates.

State agency employees and the general public are required to wear face coverings under Gov. Roy Cooper’s executive order seeking to curb the spread of the coronavirus as new cases continue to crop up.

But in local jails, where some experts and advocates warn the conditions put inmates and staff at a particularly high risk of contracting the disease, mask mandates remain at the discretion of the county.

Mask policies vary among jails, with many encouraging employees who interact with prisoners to don masks, some requiring they be worn, and others providing masks to inmates or requiring they wear them, The News & Observer found in asking a sampling of counties about their policies.

Jails have been the site of multiple outbreaks across the state. The Cumberland County Detention Center has reported 13 staff members and 20 residents contracting the virus. In Durham County, one staff member died from the virus, and eight total reportedly have contracted it.

Spreads in jails affects community

Social distancing measures are all but impossible in prisons and jails, said Jeffrey Coots, director of the ‘From Punishment to Public Health’ initiative at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Inmates live in close quarters with one another, congregate frequently for meals and in recreational spaces, and often work shifts in proximity to one another, Coots said.

These conditions can grow more dangerous when combined with a population at greater risk of health complications from the virus, said Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, an associate professor at the UNC School of Medicine who has studied the impacts of incarceration on health.

“On average, people who are incarcerated have at least one chronic health condition, so that makes folks who are incarcerated much more likely to suffer severely from COVID-19,” she said. “And so it’s really that intersection that amplifies risk in these settings.”

Staff members interact with inmates before returning home, and new inmates enter the system every day, Coots noted.

“The health of our local jail will impact the health of our local community, without exception,” he told the News & Observer. “There is no physical boundary that you can walk through that eliminates someone’s infection to COVID-19.”

As it applies to the public, Cooper’s executive order has faced some pushback from lawmakers and law enforcement, with more than a dozen sheriffs stating publicly that they will not enforce it. In a Facebook post, Sampson County Sheriff Jimmy Thornton called the mask requirement “unconstitutional,” and while multiple other sheriffs have encouraged masks be worn, they have also said they disagreed with the governor’s mandate.

According to the order, local government agencies are “strongly encouraged,” but not required to adopt mask requirements. County jails have adopted a range of approaches to prevent the spread of the disease, with many implementing daily temperature checks for employees, symptom screening and isolation periods for new inmates, and efforts to reduce jail populations.

But Coots warns that even with these precautions, the virus can find its way in — and that if it does, masks offer the best protection against further spread. Asymptomatic individuals who enter the jail, like staff members or new inmates, could spread the virus to others unknowingly. By the time the issue is visible, he said, it could be too late to stop.

“Once people start having symptoms, it snowballs,” Coots said. “Once the deaths start occurring, you’ve already had the problem for three weeks and you can’t back it out. That’s why the masks alone can save exponential lives.”

To Daniel Siegel, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, masks are “critically necessary” for inmates.

“I think that local jails need to be taking the lead on this,” Siegel said. “And not be waiting until disaster strikes.”

According to Brinkley-Rubinstein, masks are actually even more important for prison populations than the general public.

“The mask is actually in many ways about community protection,” she said, explaining that it’s more effective at preventing its wearer from infecting others than mitigating incoming germs. “In prison and jail settings, where you can’t engage in some of the other prevention activities, such as social distancing, masks become much more important.”

Ideally, Coots said all inmates and staff members would be provided masks to mitigate the risk of an outbreak. But with protective gear in short supply, he acknowledged that one alternative might be to ensure that staff members are wearing masks, and that as soon as a case is detected, all inmates become required to wear masks too.

Range of mask policies

The New Hanover County Detention Facility made masks mandatory for all staff and inmates last month after a staff member tested positive, according to Maj. Doug Price. Ten other staff members have since tested positive. The jail has also tested 15 inmates, 13 of which came back negative. The other two tests were still pending.

For Sheriff Wes Tripp of Halifax County, protective gear has been in limited supply, and he said his office is applying for a federal grant to acquire more for its detention center.

“Right now, we’re having to rob Peter to pay Paul,” he said. “I’m taking donations from private citizens on masks.”

Tripp said deputies are provided with and encouraged to wear masks, and that they do so when social distancing is not possible to maintain. He added that inmates are given masks when going to court.

In a bid to lower the risk of an outbreak, many jails around the state have also moved to reduce their populations and take on fewer new inmates.

The Onslow County jail population has gone down to around 300 inmates, from its usual total in the mid-400s, according to Chief Deputy Col. Christopher Thomas. The jail is built to hold more than 500 inmates, Thomas said.

Tripp said he has set a cap of 65 inmates for the Halifax County jail, down from its ordinary 85-person capacity.

Still, in many jails inmates are housed with two, or sometimes more, people to a cell.

“It’s not the ideal situation for social distancing, that’s just being honest with you,” Tripp said of the jail’s two-bed-per-cell layout.

While jails and prisons have received criticism for their responses to the virus, Brinkley-Rubinstein said she hoped they would not be left on their own to find solutions.

“If jails don’t have access to PPE, then it really is on the public health apparatus in the county to try to help fill that void,” she said. “It’s got to be a collaboration if we want to be successful in trying to get COVID out of these facilities.”

And even though many jails have yet to report their first case, she warned against complacency. There’s been little testing in NC prisons and jails so far, she added.

“If you don’t test, you can’t identify cases,” she said. “And so just because no cases have been identified doesn’t mean that COVID isn’t in the building.”

This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Use of masks varies at NC jails. Experts say that’s risky — and not just for inmates.."