An outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in the San Joaquin County Jail has been largely confined to a handful of inmates and hasn’t produced any life-threatening symptoms, according to San Joaquin County Sheriff Pat Withrow.
In his monthly address to constituents in San Joaquin County, Withrow – who was vocal about the State of California’s approach to preventing the virus in custody environments early in the pandemic – said that only four inmates that tested positive showed any symptoms at all and those that did were mild at best.
By isolating those inmates, Withrow said they were able to stop the virus from spreading throughout the facility.
“We’re very lucky here because when we have something like this happen, we’re able to quarantine people quickly because they’re housed in different areas,” Withrow said. “That works out really well for us. We’re almost past the quarantine time in one of our areas. We’ve had very little if any symptoms – we had four people that had symptoms that were very light and not unlike what I had when I had it.
“We’re keeping our loved ones safe here if they have to do some time with us – things are going very well and we’re doing what we can to make sure that everybody stays safe and healthy here.”
Withrow took issue in 2020 with the Judicial Council’s approach to thin out the population of jails to prevent the spread of COVID – arguing that by sending repeat visitors to the County Jail back out into the population only for them to be rearrested for other crimes and brought back the move actually increases the likelihood of an outbreak.
Withrow himself tested positive for the virus but recovered with little symptoms during his illness.
But the outbreak hasn’t been without its impacts.
In addition to halting all book-and-release cases at the San Joaquin Jail for the time being, the decision has also been made to suspend all in-person visits as a precaution to protect those that are serving their time or awaiting transfer to a California State Prison facility.
Inmates will still be able to communicate with their loved uses using the tablets that are issued with software that allows those currently serving time to – for a fee – conduct video calls. The tablets also come pre-loaded with software that allows inmates to read the hand-written letters and cards that are scanned digitally to prevent contraband from making its way into the secure facility.
And because there is a limited number of inmates that are cleared to do work in order to keep the facility functioning, correctional staff as well as sheriff’s deputies have had to step in to tackle the monumental task of providing clean laundry to inmates on a steady basis. According to Withrow, everybody from the Assistant Sheriff to Captains and Lieutenants have stepped in help fold laundry and have it available for inmates as it is needed.
The address was part of Withrow’s ongoing commitment to informing the public about things are going on within the county’s largest law enforcement agency.
To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.
