Queens private jail contractor says city told them to stop COVID-19 tests
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At least nine people at the Queens Detention Facility, a privately run jail operated by GEO Group, have tested positive for COVID-19. AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
By David Brand
The corporation that runs the only private jail in New York City says the city’s Health Department advised them to stop testing inmates for COVID-19, though the coronavirus has so far spread to at least nine people in the facility’s wide-open dormitory units.
Two inmates and seven staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Queens Detention Facility, according to GEO Group, a large private prison company that contracts with the U.S. Marshals to detain people before their sentencing in federal court. The 222-bed jail is located in an industrial portion of Springfield Gardens near JFK Airport.
GEO Group is required by court order to produce a twice-weekly report on the number of people with COVID-19 at the jail, as well as a description of jail protocol for stopping the spread of the illness.
GEO Group included a footnote in their report Tuesday indicating that New York City’s Department of Health informed the jail on April 3 “that testing detainees, who demonstrated symptoms of COVID-19 at the Queens Private Detention Facility, was no longer necessary.”
“The DOH stated that the person should be confined and his or her symptoms should be treated,” the report continues. “He or she can be released from confinement when the person has no fever without medication.”
GEO Group wrote that medical staff have continued to test inmates in spite of the Health Department’s guidelines. In total, 17 Queens Detention Facility inmates have been tested for COVID-19, according to the court-mandated report. An inmate who contacted the Eagle Tuesday said staff were taking the temperature of inmates with high fever who lay shaking and sweating in their beds.
A Health Department spokesperson said the agency is “unable to confirm any conversations took place with staff at Queens Detention Facility.”
The spokesperson shared a link to the city’s guidance for congregate settings, including jails, which states that “routine outpatient COVID-19 testing is not needed” because a person with symptoms of COVID-19 should be assumed to have the illness.
The Eagle has been reporting on conditions inside the Queens Detention Facility, where inmates, their loved ones and defense attorneys describe a severe staff shortage, several sick detainees who have not been tested for COVID-19 and limited personal protective equipment.
The jail’s eight-cell restrictive housing unit has been used to isolate a handful of inmates, according to inmates and attorneys. Other inmates sleep on bunk beds in the jail’s seven dormitory housing units, where they say social distancing is all but impossible.
“Everyone’s coughing, sneezing on top of each other,” one inmate who contacted the Eagle said April 1. “We’re not practicing social distancing because you cannot do social distancing in this jail because everyone is so on top of each other.”
GEO Group began issuing personal protective equipment, including N-80 masks and surgical gloves, to staff members on duty on April 3, according to the most recent court-ordered report.
Inmates began to receive N-80 masks Tuesday, GEO Group wrote in the report. Two inmates confirmed that the GEO Group has distributed masks to everyone in the jail.
“We are placing high emphasis on good hygienic practices, intensifying cleaning, and disinfection of the facility, GEO Group wrote in its report. “Furthermore, we implemented strong internal controls screening new detainees, staff and visitors when applicable.”
GEO Group also said it has directed staff to stay home if they are sick.
Inmates and their loved ones have told the Eagle that a skeleton crew now staffs the jail, including a single staff person in the medical unit.
