Coronavirus highlights need to get Idaho prisoners back to Idaho
Holly Kersey knows all too well the challenges of having a family member in an out-of-state prison. Her brother and her father-in-law are both in the Eagle Pass Correctional Facility in Eagle Pass, Texas, a private prison run by Geo Group, which Idaho has been contracting with to house prisoners because its facilities are overcrowded.
But she said it’s been difficult to get information from Geo.
“I haven’t really heard a ton,” she told me in a phone interview this week. “Unfortunately we don’t get as transparent of a view with Geo and how Geo runs Eagle Pass as we do with (the Idaho Department of Correction).”
With the coronavirus outbreak, it’s a particularly difficult time, as family members worry about their loved ones behind bars some 1,600 miles away.
In all, 610 Idaho prisoners are at Eagle Pass, which has a capacity of 650, according to Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray.
Three inmates at Eagle Pass have been tested for coronavirus, Ray wrote in an email to the Statesman. One test came back negative, and results are pending on the other two.
Volunteers and visitors are no longer allowed to enter the facility, and staff are medically screened prior to entering. Any showing symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, are sent home and must be cleared by their doctor before they can return to work, Ray wrote.
COVID-19 spread in Texas
Maverick County, Texas, and the city of Eagle Pass, where the prison is located near the Mexico border, had their first case of COVID-19 on March 21 and now have eight confirmed cases, including a local doctor who was asymptomatic but carried the virus for an unknown amount of time before testing positive, according to the Eagle Pass Business Journal.
Ray said medical staff at the Eagle Pass prison walk through all of the housing units several times each day looking for people with virus symptoms. When they are found, the person is immediately moved to the medical unit for isolation, according to Ray.
Contract monitors from Idaho, who had been traveling to keep an eye on Eagle Pass, are not visiting the prison right now since it is medically risky to travel, according to Ray.
“Our monitors are temporarily telecommuting from their homes,” Ray said via email. “We are in constant communication with the facility and are monitoring them remotely during the public health care emergency.”
Ray said Idaho officials are in daily contact with the administrators at the Eagle Pass Correctional Facility and receive immediate updates on any changes in operations or conditions.
“We receive concern forms from the inmates each day that are scanned and emailed to us that identify any complaints the inmates may have with conditions at the facility,” Ray wrote. “We also receive copies of all grievances responded to at the Eagle Pass Correctional Facility as well as all disciplinary actions taken. Our medical monitor receives daily updates from the Facility Healthcare Services Administrator concerning any medical issues at the facility.”
Ray said there is an in-depth emergency plan for an epidemic at the facility that has been reviewed and approved by Idaho’s monitoring staff. Additionally, monitoring staff participated in an exercise where the response plan was reviewed and demonstrated.
The Department of Correction is posting its tally of testing at Eagle Pass and all IDOC facilities on IDOC’s website. The site includes near-daily updates from IDOC Director Josh Tewalt and will include any cases at Eagle Pass.
GeoGroup has a page on its website providing information about how it is responding the COVID-19. But the page doesn’t provide any specific information about any of its facilities. The page provides general information about steps the company is taking, such as updating policies, enacting flexible time off and ordering swab kits for coronavirus.
Less crowding at Eagle Pass medical unit
Kersey said one recent positive change at Eagle Pass has been how the facility has handled prisoners reporting for medical treatment.
She said that previously, prisoners would report to the medical unit all at once, crammed into a small room, and wait sometimes for hours to see a doctor. Now, prisoners are called to the unit three at a time so they’re seen more quickly and are able to distance themselves in the unit.
At least 177 Texans’ deaths have been linked to COVID-19, and at least 9,353 people in the state have been diagnosed with the disease, according to the Texas Tribune. The population of Texas is about 28.7 million.
Ray said that if there is an outbreak, Eagle Pass has quarantine ability. There are two negative pressure cells in the medical unit at the prison designed to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
Also, according to Ray, the facility is operating below capacity, which provides ample opportunity to isolate inmates and contain an outbreak.
Meanwhile, negotiations to move Idaho prisoners to another out-of-state facility, this one in Colorado, have been put on hold, Ray said.
Idaho had been in active negotiations with CoreCivic on a five-year contract to house as many as 1,000 Idaho prisoners at Kit Carson Correctional Center in Burlington, Colorado. But those negotiations have been temporarily halted amid the coronavirus crisis, Ray wrote, and there is no timeline for resuming those discussions or finalizing a contract.
Kersey said it seems as if the situation is under control at Eagle Pass right now, but some things concern her moving forward. She said workers who are serving food are wearing gloves but not masks, for example.
In the Idaho prisons, Kersey said, IDOC is posting photos and updates on social media and its website, explaining proactive steps they’re taking, dispatching cleaning crews and outlining what chemicals are being used to sanitize facilities here — a stark contrast from information she gets about the Texas prison.
Having a relative in prison can be difficult regardless of the situation. Having a relative in a prison out of state is even more of a challenge. Having a relative in an out-of-state prison at a time of a global pandemic must be excruciating.
And having limited information because of a private contract is yet another reminder that the state should get out of the private-prison business and figure out a way to house all of its prisoners in Idaho.
