In January, before the pandemic hit the the Chenango County Correctional Facility released 137 of 189 inmates, related to new bail reforms passed by New York State.
“That actually happened under bail reform back in December. That wasn’t COVID related,” said Sheriff Ernest R. Cutting, Jr.
“So even though it was under bail reform, when COVID started, it actually helped us in the sense that we had fewer inmates that we were dealing with.”
As the virus spread and the state ordered a lockdown in mid-March the sheriff said his two main concerns were to protect key staff working in the Chenango County dispatch center and the inmates being held in the correctional facility.
“Initially, the first thing we did was shut down the dispatch center and secure it from everybody else. Yes, they were socially distanced, but because there are only 13 dispatchers over three shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 365 days a year, if I start dropping two or three dispatchers, then there’s a problem,” said Cutting.
Chief Dispatcher A. Wesley Jones, along with 911 Coordinator George Finch, implemented tight safety measures at the center, such as masking, spacing and split staff into different shifts to help avoid any outbreaks.
The dispatchers work on computers in close quarters as they coordinate fire, ambulance and police calls, essentially, all emergency calls and communication in Chenango County.
Dispatchers require eight weeks of field training to learn the job and replacing such personnel on short notice could be difficult.
The sheriff also activated the offices back-up dispatch center so he could have two shifts working in separate locations, effectively isolating or reducing the chances of an outbreak that might impact enough staff to disrupt operations.
“We tried to split the staff so that we could always have, hopefully, a group that wasn’t affected,” he said.
Jail outbreak during
winter holidays
Another area of concern was the county jail.
“You have a confined group of people that live in close quarters. A big concern was COVID getting in there.”
Inmates and correction officers stayed COVID-19 free for the first 10-and-a-half months of the pandemic but late in 2020 a handful of inmates and staff began testing positive.
“We had a mini-outbreak after one of the pods started having positive coronavirus test results,” said Cutting. “Three out of the four people in that pod tested positive, and it began to spread.”
As staff also fell ill the jail set-up a quarantine ward for everyone who had a confirmed case.
Cutting said anyone on staff who displayed symptoms was sent home to quarantine, and everyone else who was in jail and infected was separated into a different pod. The sheriff also had all inmates and staff regularly tested.
“We shifted the inmates that were exposed into the housing pod, and sanitized the other pods to help slow the spread,” he said. “We also went to emergency management and purchased rapid testing kits to try and get people diagnosed as quickly as possible.”
The sheriff’s office had approximately 15 positive coronavirus cases. Eight of those were staff at the jail. All those who fell ill recovered and none were hospitalized or suffered major health complications.
Unfortunately though the outbreak occured just before the holiday season and the correctional facility was closed to visitors.
“One of the biggest things in corrections was that we had to shut down visitation for the inmates,” said Cutting. “We shut it down for quite awhile. We gave the inmates extra phone calls and extra stationary for writing to loved ones, but that was tough on them.”
The jail has seven non-contact visitation cells where a glass partition separates inmates from visitors.
The jail opened all the cells up, so at least inmates could see loved ones.
“One of the things I’m doing is we’ve gone to tablets in the jail. The company that has our inmate phone system supplied them to us, free of cost. Hopefully, eventually we can get to a point where the inmates can have a video visit with their loved ones. We’re looking at this technology for educational programs, because those are being done virtually now,” said Cutting.
The jail is again COVID-19 free and housed about 80 inmate in January 2021. Chenango County Public Health Director Marcas Flindt said the facility’s precautionary steps and strong response was exemplary.
One of the reasons the sheriff’s office was able to respond so effectively was because it had been well prepared.
“We’ve always had a pandemic policy. We’ve talked about pandemics before. We talked about H1N1, and developed a plan and dealt with that,” said Cutting.
The office had an established pandemic plan in place prior to COVID-19 becoming a public health crisis. The sheriff’s office is also well stocked on personal protective equipment.
“We always have protective equipment because of the nature of what we do, so we just got more of it out. There’s always gloves, there’s always masks,” explained Undersheriff Daniel Frair.
Enforcement during
a pandemic
When the state ordered the lockdown in March the sheriff’s office initiated a response team, to try and predict and coordinate all efforts needed to address issues being raise by the pandemic.
“We had been talking about it prior to the shutdown though. Around mid-February it was really becoming part of the national conversation. It took quite a while before we really had any cases here in Chenango County. We’ve been fortunate in this sense,” said Cutting.
The sheriff also admitted that at first no one knew what to expect.
“I think initially we didn’t know, and I was skeptical at first. All of the sudden we’ve got this new virus that going to change the world,” he said. “I think the public at first was pretty skeptical too, but there were groups that were really concerned. We assured them that we’re going to be here, and we’ve been here. We are here to help them any way we can.”
As the pandemic spread and the lockdown went on police began to see its effects on the public, with an increase of overdoses, drug use and incidents of domestic violence.
“It’s very difficult. Overdoses rose for a while. That was something we saw. The domestic issues have obviously gone up. A lot of substance abuse, a lot of alcohol abuse through all of this. It’s a challenge. You try to maintain distance, but you’ve got a job to do too, you know.”
Those trends are still increasing and the winter season is often the time of year when those issues rise, even before the pandemic.
“Yes, they are still up. I think it’s the tensions. Everybody is still, in a sense, locked down. A lot of businesses are still locked down. This happens especially in the winter months, in the summer time people get outside, so it’s a little better, but in the winter months everybody’s kind of confined in their homes and then people just start getting on each other’s nerves. And it just escalates from there,” said Cutting.
When police respond to calls they are required to following safety guideline but often those they encounter are not. It can be difficult to force compliance with someone under the influence of drugs or those in the middle of a stressful domestic dispute.
Apart from illness the pandemic has increased stress for deputies, correction officers and inmates.
“It is tough. It adds a lot of anxiety on top of an already tough job,” said Frair.
The sheriff added, “In addressing the anxiety, we’ve had a few people that really got upset initially. And when they really start spiraling, you have to pull them back sometimes and tell them it’s ok, here’s the guidelines and here’s what we’re doing. We’ve done everything that we’re supposed to do. We’re going to be OK. We’re going to get through this.”
The sheriff said his office has received few complaints relating to COVID-19 enforcement.
“We’ll get reports and they’ll ask us to check on things, and most of the time we check and they’re unfounded. Most of the businesses, if they’re open, they’re complying, because they know they want to stay open. They don’t want to have to close,” said Cutting.
Frair added, “The vast majority of complaints go right to the health department. I know that they send out letters and stuff to different businesses where complaints have been filed by citizens.”
As of January 2021 almost no police officers or staff in the road patrol, dispatch, or civil department tested positive for COVID-19, except one.
The Chenango County Sheriff’s Office is comprised of civil, law enforcement, corrections and the 911 Center. Those four divisions are the main components of the sheriff’s office. There are about 130 staff total, including 23 officers in patrol, 59 full-time and 18 part-time corrections officers, one mechanic, one maintenance staff, two custodians and about 14 kitchen staff. There are also 13 dispatchers, three in the civil division, two administrators, a secretary and a part-time accounting clerk.
The sheriff’s office is looking to hire additional correctional staff.
“For law enforcement, the county has really stepped up with the last two contracts, and we’re now competitive. So that’s really helped my law enforcement side. We’re still down with corrections though, we still struggle to get people there. It’s a tough environment to work in,” said Cutting.
We will always be
here to help
Cutting said the sheriff’s office had to reduce its community programs and inmate work details in order to protect staff and inmates.
“We pretty much shut that all down because we don’t want them out in the public and then bringing something back into the jail,” said Cutting.
The sheriff said he was optimistic about the vaccine but people had to keep following the health guidelines for a while longer.
“I know people get frustrated and they’re getting tired of wearing masks, but if you could just wear your mask when you’re supposed to wear it, and wash your hands, those are probably the two biggest things that you can do to help prevent the spread of it,” he said.
He said offering support for inmates and staff and sharing information was important.
“One of the biggest things was we had to sit down and reassure the staff. We’re here too. We’re going to be here through the whole thing, thick and thin. We’re not hiding. Unfortunately, we’re tasked, but that’s what we choose to do, these careers. We have to face that reality. I’ll keep buying all the stuff I can to protect them. They’ve all got sanitizers and stuff and all the counters and we follow the guidelines,” he said.
“The pandemic isn’t going to last forever.”
In the next six months Cutting thinks the area will turn the corner on the pandemic and things will slowly start to improve.
I think we’ll turn the corner. I think once the vaccine starts rolling out to the general public, we can get over it. But that’s going to be a process,” he said.