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MCSO addresses inmate safety during the pandemic

Several inmates throughout Alabama have tested positive for COVID-19.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Inmate safety in corrections facilities has become a growing concern during the pandemic. Several inmates in Alabama have tested positive for the virus.

There are about 850 inmates housed at the Madison County Jail. The question is how to keep those inmates safe during the pandemic.

"I have seen that first hand - no mask. I have seen people released without their masks," says Huntsville Bail Fund organizer, Tahirih Osborne.

Osborne says there's been concerns about practices at the Madison County Jail. "Unsafe practices include confiscating masks and not providing masks after their personal mask has been confiscated," says Osborne.

Madison County Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer, Brent Patterson, says right now there are no reported cases of the coronavirus at the jail. He says masks are readily available, but the focus is keeping the facility clean.

"We want to go beyond that. We want to make sure that the areas are clean. And when you have inmates that are cleaning 24/7 over and over and over again - they never stop cleaning," says Patterson.

Patterson says temperature checks are run on incoming inmates. "Somebody comes in with a temperature, they are put in a different location and a different pod, and they are watched 24/7 and by staff employees."

He also says current inmates are monitored. "If we see symptoms, we will test them. We will check their temperature. Inmates that come in to our facility with officers, we test them as well."

According Patterson, they've also put a halt to outside work release. 

Osborne hopes that in addition to safe practices, people with a $5,000 bond or less are released from jail. "The main thing is lessening the number of people .... in the jail at any one time, and not contributing to their unsanitary conditions in the process," says Osborne.

Madison County Sheriff's officials haven't set a date yet to resume visitation. Officials say inmate safety is their priority. 

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