County jail off quarantine for virus patients

Keith Gushard, The Meadville Tribune, Pa.
·2 min read

Feb. 26—The Crawford County Correctional Facility has weathered its COVID-19 crisis from January, according to Warden Jack Greenfield.

"As of today, all our quarantined units are off quarantine and we are at relatively normal operations," Greenfield said at Thursday's Crawford County Prison Board meeting, which was held via teleconference due to the pandemic.

In January, the county jail in Saegertown was hit with COVID-19 outbreaks in two housing pods plus several cases among staff members.

A total of 58 inmates tested positive for the coronavirus during January and February, with the last positive inmate case Feb. 4, Greenfield told the Tribune. The last inmates came off a 21-day quarantine Thursday, he said. There also were eight positive cases reported among staffers.

The jail's quarantine housing is no longer at the critical stages it was in January and early February. Because of the large number of COVID-19 cases at the jail, inmates had to be quarantined in place rather than moved to a quarantine housing area.

The virus outbreaks were able to be controlled with the cooperation of Crawford County Court of Common Pleas, Adult Probation, Sheriff's Office and other agencies in helping control the number of inmates being sent to the jail, according to Greenfield.

"I want to commend you and everyone out there that the quarantine housing area is back to normal. That's a job well done," District Attorney Francis Schultz, who chairs the Prison Board, told Greenfield.

Issues with extra precautions due to the pandemic caused a couple of fights among inmates, Greenfield told the board. Also, last week there was a "minor assault" on a corrections officer by an inmate and charges have been filed, he added.

To help control any potential spread of COVID-19 and keep the jail population calm, the facility continues to release only half the inmates within a general housing pod at one time from their cells into the pod's common area, Greenfield said. Each general housing pod contains between 40 to 50 inmates.

Keith Gushard can be reached at 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.