Bristol County corrections officer, first inmate, test positive for COVID-19

DARTMOUTH – An inmate and a corrections officer at the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office recently tested positive for COVID-19.

According to a BCSO spokesperson, the county inmate, who is housed in the Bristol County House of Correction on Faunce Corner Road in Dartmouth, was sent to St. Luke’s Hospital for a preexisting medical condition on April 29. He was given a COVID-19 test on April 30. He received notice of a positive test on Friday, May 1 and returned to the jail in Dartmouth, where he was and currently remains housed in a single cell in the medical unit. He is being closely monitored by health care professionals.

The medical team has been continuously assessing the housing unit he was in before being transported to St. Luke’s. No inmates in that unit have reported symptoms linked to COVID-19, according to the spokesperson.

The corrections officer was last at work on Wednesday, April 29, and Thursday, April 30, on the hospital detail with the inmate at St. Luke’s. He didn’t feel well on April 30, left early and got tested, and was notified about the positive result on Sunday, May 2.

“There are almost 70,000 COVID cases in Mass., including more than 4,000 in Bristol County,” Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson said Tuesday afternoon. “We feel very fortunate that none of the cases among our staff or the incarcerated population is life-threatening.”

Currently, seven Bristol County Sheriff’s Office staff members are away from the facility recovering from COVID-19. Four others have fully recovered and returned to duty.

The inmate is the first county prisoner in a Bristol County Sheriff’s Office correctional facility to test positive for COVID-19.

Over the past few months, the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office has instituted many protocols to protect inmates, detainees and staff from the Coronavirus outbreak. Some of those measures include:

· All employees were given masks that must be worn inside the secure perimeter of our facilities. All inmates and detainees have also been given masks to wear for protection.

· All areas of the facility are being cleaned\disinfected every day on every shift.

· All staff members are being screened before entering the buildings; new arriving inmates are being screened before being accepted into custody.

· In-person visitation has been suspended to limit the number of people coming in and out.

An incident occurred on Friday involving ICE detainees getting tested for COVID-19.

Hodgson stated that a group of about 10 detainees reported to medical personnel having multiple symptoms of COVID-19 and refused to get tested for COVID-19, which led to them rushing violently at him and corrections officers, barricaded themselves inside the facility, ripped washing machines and pipes off the wall, broke windows and trashing the entire unit.

The incident caused U.S. Rep Joseph Kennedy III to call for an investigation.

Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, released a statement following the incident.

“These reports are deeply disturbing. We are concerned for our clients, and everyone detained in the Bristol County House of Correction and ICE detention. Immigration detention has expanded at record levels under the Trump administration; now more than ever, we will not allow the increasingly horrific conditions of ICE detention to be normalized.”

Hodgson on Saturday morning held a press conference defending the actions taken against the detainees and provided a tour of the damage to the media.

Hodgson stated that the incident resulted in approximately $25,000 worth of damage.