HAZELTON, W.Va. — Two federal prisons in West Virginia are serving as 14-day quarantine sites for new prisoners but some remain upset with the move.
“Everything the citizens have done, everything the small businesses have done, everything, and just throws it down the tubes because there could be a breach,” Preston County Commissioner Samantha Stone said Monday on WAJR’s “Talk of the Town.”
Stone’s concerned that someone transferred to the federal prison at Hazelton may have the coronavirus and cause a spread to the staff and then into her county. Stone said Preston County currently has only 13 confirmed cases and she is contacting all available officials to stop the plan.
“I have spoken with Patrick Morrisey, I have spoken with the governor’s representative, we have had communication with Capito’s office and I’ve been on the phone with Wendy Madden from Congressman McKinley’s office,” Stone said. “Everybody is sending letters of support saying don’t send them here.”
But the move appeared to be a done deal in a statement sent to MetroNews Sunday by the federal Bureau of Prisons.
BOP spokesperson Sue Allison said FCI Hazelton and FCI Gilmer are two of 10 sites across the country to house new federal prison inmates for a 14-day quarantine period before they are moved into the main BOP population.
“The institutions designated as quarantine sites, like other BOP facilities, have PPE and all needed sanitation supplies on hand, have available bed space and are adequately staffed to handle these inmates,” Allison said.
Before the inmates get to Hazelton and Gilmer they will be properly screened and transferred by the U.S. Marshal Service. Inmates are wearing cloth masks during the transport.
“All newly admitted inmates coming into the BOP are screened and temperature checked by employees wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), to include surgical masks, face shields/goggles, gloves, and gowns in accordance with CDC guidance,” Allison said.
Stone said workers at Hazelton commute from Monongalia County, Maryland and Pennsylvania creating an unnecessary risk in an area that has worked hard to keep the infection rate low.
“There are over 800 employees at Hazelton that have to go home to their families,” Stone said. “Although they’re taking every precaution necessary, there still could be that chance.”
Stone said they are running out of options to stop the plan.
“I believe now it’s going to take an act of President Trump to put his foot down and saying absolutely not, they need to sit tight, but I don’t know that it’s going to happen,”I’m starting to lose all faith in the work I’ve been doing and the people I’ve been talking to.”
Stone says local, state and federal officials are lobbying against the plan, but prison officials are forging ahead.
“They are in support of what we’re wanting, they’re wanting it to stop as well. I think it’s falling on deaf ears,” Stone said. “I’ve been told they are still coming and there’s nothing we can do about it.”