DARTMOUTH — A Department of Public Health complaint investigation of conditions at the Bristol County Jail and House of Correction states that the facility’s infection control manual appears to be out-of-date -- it is not dated -- and does not include COVID-19 specific information.
The investigation also found overcrowding at the facility during the pandemic including that seven of eight units had “inadequate floor space." It further found clogged and out-of-order sinks and toilets, mold growing on a kitchen ceiling, broken air vents, dangling light fixtures and missing tiles. Other violations included food not being appropriately covered and the facility not being cleaned as often as necessary and equipment not being kept in a good state of repair.
The DPH report did not find evidence of claims that all inmates did not have access to clean drinking water and hygiene products, that access to medical care and prescribed medication have not remained available to inmates without disruption, and that there have been disruptions to the laundry schedule or access restriction to laundry service or clean clothes.
The report found that PDF files sent by the jail to DPH's Bureau of Environmental Health contained a variety of email correspondences and other documents relating to COVID-19 that were not well organized.
DPH officials inspected the Dartmouth facility on June 25.
Jonathan Darling, a spokesman for the Bristol Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, said in an email that the building was designed and constructed in 1990 in compliance with the standards at the time and in the years following the state has required the facility to run double bunked and they have been granted occupancy waivers annually for many years by the the Department of of Corrections and DPH.
Darling said the sinks and toilets are subject to being intentionally clogged by inmates and clogs are addressed when made known and the clogs that the inspector found were corrected that same day.
Some floors were found with dirty showers, according to Darling, because the inspection occurred shortly after the shower was used and before the daily cleaning.
Other violations included food safety violations for food not being appropriately covered, the facility not being cleaned as often as necessary, and equipment not being kept in a state of good repair, among other things.
“The violations found in the kitchen are minor and will likely be found in any large-scale industrial or commercial kitchen,” Darling said, “Our kitchen makes and serves thousands of meals every day, runs 24 hours a day on all three shifts and has roughly 50-60 people working in it daily...Any equipment they found not working was repaired and most of the violations were corrected on site right in front of the inspectors.”
Darling also said that prior to the pandemic, the manual had no changes since its last update in 2017 as no communicable diseases had emerged, but that it outlines steps and action to take on the flu, H1N1, AIDS and others.
“The infection control manual did not have COVID specific information because there was a separate COVID protocol that was constantly changing and evolving as CDC, DPH, and others kept adapting their recommendations and guidance,” Darling said, “Typically, we add new sections to the infection control manual after the acute phase has passed because of the frequency of changes and updates.”
As a result of recommendations from DPH, though, Darling said the most recent CDC and DPH guidelines and the onsite medical director’s approved COVID protocol have now been added to the facility’s infectious disease manual.
The activist group, Bristol County for Correctional Justice, is touting the results of the DPH investigation into complaints about the House of Correction as evidence that Hodgson lacks a coherent plan to combat the coronavirus in a filthy and unsanitary facility. But Darling said the sheriff's office is satisfied with the results.
In a press release this week, BCCJ said that following a complaint about the conditions at the Dartmouth facility, DPH had asked Hodgson for a written response to the complaint, including any COVID-19 infection control plan.
BCCJ has long been critical of Hodgson’s leadership of the Dartmouth and New Bedford jails, but in more recent months that criticism has ramped up and taken aim at Hodgson’s resistance to releasing individuals in his custody as a way to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
In its press release, BCCJ also criticized the crowding, maintenance and cleanliness issues. “While these conditions come as no surprise, they are still dangerous, unsanitary and unacceptable,” the release said.
When asked if the types of violations DPH found during the inspection are routine or serious, a DPH spokesperson said the state typically does not categorize violations, and will allow the report to speak for itself.
As many as 47 immigrant detainees have been released from the Bristol County House of Correction during the coronavirus pandemic on the orders of a federal judge in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus.
In response to the orders to release detainees, Hodgson launched the Prisoner Release Alert System that lists the criminal histories of the ICE detainees that have been released, and said, “America’s sheriffs took an oath to protect their communities from harm, and these judges are undermining that oath and putting our families and friends at risk by releasing prisoners across the country.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, 49 inmates and 43 staff members have tested positive for the virus. At the time of the inspection, there were about 500 inmates at the Dartmouth facility, down from a high of about 800 before the onset of COVID-19 and before the state enacted a criminal justice reform law last year.
Darling said all those who tested positive have made full recoveries and there are no active cases of COVID among staff or inmates currently.
Referring to the violations the BCCJ's release said, “If this is the best face Hodgson can put on when he knows state inspectors are about to come knocking? What is life like when the Department of Public Health is not about to walk the halls?”
Darling said, “Any issues the DPH found are very minor and the inspection also presented an opportunity for the DPH and the BCSO to dispel many of the lies and other outrageous claims left-wing political activism groups keep peddling in the media and on social media.”
The outrageous claims, according to Darling, included those of a lack of drinking water, a lack of clean clothing, and denial of medical care.
“These falsehoods are spread in the Letter to the Editor section of The Standard-Times by these political groups, so this inspection report gives us another opportunity to dispel this politically motivated and hateful misinformation campaign directed at Sheriff Hodgson and the correctional professionals of the BCSO," Darling said.