Good Morning,
I am writing to share the Office of the Corrections Ombuds (OCO) updates for this last week related to the COVID concerns in the Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities. The OCO work for last week continues to be driven by the complaints received in our office from the incarcerated individuals and their families and friends.
Last week, the OCO continued to receive concerns related to COVID with the primary areas of concern being related to isolation and quarantine. There were many concerns raised about people who had tested negative for COVID after being in isolation and, in particular, that individuals who had newly tested positive were being moved into the same areas as those who were now negative. This situation resulted in people not being able to move out of isolation or quarantine even though they had several negative tests and spent the required time in isolation. These concerns, as well as others related quarantine and isolation, were the predominant COVID-related concerns this week.
Our OCO staff conducted several site visits again last week and spoke directly to hundreds of incarcerated individuals in many facilities. Our team was able to address many concerns directly while at the facilities, some of which are listed below. They were also able to witness and confirm some areas of concern that were consistent with the concerns received. We followed up and discussed the concerns directly with the facilities and Headquarters in an effort address some of these very important issues. I have listed the main issues below that we have focused our efforts on this past week.
Overall, the numbers of COVID cases in the DOC facilities continues to trend downward. This is a very important trend and hopefully will lead to reduced restrictions in the very near future. We will continue our facility visits, working with the concerns received to the extent we are able, and to share what we are able to in our updates. I am also sharing DOC Sec. Strange's letter for those who may not have received it in order to try to provide as much information to incarcerated individuals and their families as we can.
COVID-RELATED CONCERNS DATA
The following data is the total for the COVID-related concerns received by the OCO in the past several weeks in the facilities with the data broken out by the types of concerns. The data reflect concerns received by the OCO through hotline calls directly from incarcerated individuals, complaints received through the OCO website, and emails. The following are snapshots of the concerns we have received as of today.
Data by Concern - The following table divides the concerns by category of concern:
Data by facility – The following table divides the concerns by facility:
OCO ACTIONS
The OCO is attempting to respond to as many of the concerns raised as possible, as quickly as possible, with our very small staff. While we are limited in what we are able to do by statute, the OCO staff continues to work on issues related to specific individuals in the facilities as they arise. The following are a few examples of just some of the things the OCO staff have acted on in approximately the past week. This is not the entire list of cases worked on by the OCO staff; rather, it is representative of the types of issues the staff has been working on related to COVID. In addition to the COVID-related cases, the OCO staff is also continuing to work on non-COVID related concerns as well which are not represented by the following examples.
- Monroe- At Monroe the OCO focused on WSR.
- Multiple individuals shared they were still in WSR even though they had tested negative for COVID. The OCO discussed these concerns with DOC. The OCO confirmed at least six individuals we spoke with were moved the following day.
- The OCO received complaints that food in WSR A and B units is served cold. Monroe has stated more workers were added back to the kitchen yesterday, which should help the process. The DOC has also confirmed food warmers have been ordered for the facility.
- The OCO staff worked to resolve several other individual concerns during the visit in addition to these larger issues.
- Stafford- Stafford OCO focused on H1, G units, the gym and F units.
- The OCO looked into the food provided in H1, G units and the gym and was able to confirm the incarcerated individuals were getting warm food.
- F unit had complained bread was moldy and the OCO elevated to the Superintendent.
- The Superintendent is adding more yard time.
- The Superintendent is looking into resuming tier rep meetings.
- The OCO discussed concerns received from incarcerated individuals that they did not receive the DOC provided goody bags and was told they were delivered to the facility while OCO was on site.
- F Unit stated their j-pay players were not synching since they have been there too long. I asked the Superintendent to contact IT and have them re-synched if possible. This issue was also discussed with the DOC in an effort to resolve this situation.
- Individuals who have been moved multiple times have not received their union supply orders in over a month. The OCO asked the Superintendent to look into the process to get them their property as soon as possible.
- Mission Creek
- Individuals in unit had been taken off quarantine a day prior to the visit and they were still not being given outside time. The OCO brought issue to the administration, and it was addressed by the time the OCO staff left the facility.
- Incarcerated individual in one of the units had not had paper towels for three days. The issue was resolved the day of arrival at the facility.
- Incarcerated individuals had questions about staff quarantine and isolation requirements and the DOC adherence to CDC quarantine and isolation guidance. The OCO provided information on the CDC guidance and shared the information provided by DOC top 5 questions of 2 weeks ago.
- An incarcerated person at Coyote Ridge contacted the OCO with concerns about not receiving the correct amount of earned time based on transfer delays due to COVID. OCO staff communicated with DOC headquarters staff and asked for the earned time to be reviewed. DOC reviewed the individual’s earned time and agreed the incarcerated individual should have received additional days. DOC will correct the error.
- An anonymous incarcerated individual at Airway Heights communicated to the OCO that another incarcerated person at Airway Heights no longer had access to his Keep on Person medication because of multiple cell moves. The OCO staff communicated directly with the Heath Services Manager and before the end of that day the incarcerated person received his medication.
While we are not able to get a full resolution to all of the issues submitted to our office, our staff are making multiple visits to facilities each week to talk directly with incarcerated individuals and are continuing to work on individual cases that are both COVID and non-COVID related.
The OCO statutory grant of authority limits our work to the investigation of issues: We are not able to mandate or require action. For this reason, we engage with DOC to provide them with information on the areas of concern we are identifying and make specific requests for action. We will continue to work on the issues we receive to the extent of our statutory authority to achieve a resolution.
I will be endeavoring to provide regular communications with updates as I have them to share.
Best,
Sonja Hallum
