Prisoner: SRJ protocol could improve

Aug. 4--After a positive Covid-19 test was confirmed on Friday for an inmate at Southern Regional Jail, a reported first-time offender who spent 27 days at the jail in July wants to make the public aware of medical and sanitation conditions there.

The inmate's attorney has written a letter to Southern Regional Jail officials to express concerns for inmate health and safety, in light of reported conditions at the jail.

Erica Kitzmiller, 45, a former certified nursing assistant (CNA) and new grandmother, said she worked for years in the home health care field and at a nursing home. She said conditions at SRJ could lead to the spread of Covid-19.

After learning on Friday that one prisoner had tested positive for the disease, she said she had to overcome her personal embarrassment at breaking the law and speak out for the prisoners who are still there.

Kitzmiller said that SRJ administrators took steps to talk about Covid-19 with prisoners but that attitudes and practices of guards and administrators at SRJ place prisoners at risk of contracting the illness.

"No human being should have to live like that," said Kitzmiller. "It's deplorable."

She said that SRJ staff does not make it a priority to give cleaning supplies to inmates so that they may sanitize their cells, despite fears of prisoners and prisoners' families that prisoners will contract the virus.

According to Kitzmiller, cleaning supplies are instead given on a hit-and-miss basis. She reported that mops and brooms travel from cell to cell, carrying bacteria and a moldy odor.

"They preach the Covid and all this stuff, but they don't want to give you cleaning supplies to clean your toilets, to clean the floors with.

"I got my CNA licenses. I worked in a nursing home for a year, and, I'm sorry, we cleaned," said Kitzmiller. "You can't live like that (at SRJ).

"It was absolutely horrible," she added. "They would bring in clean water and put bleach in it, but you could smell the mop, before you ever put it in the water.

"That's still unsanitary."

Kitzmiller said that prisoners at SRJ are very concerned about contracting Covid-19, especially with the overcrowded living quarters. Despite repeated requests by prisoners, guards failed to provide sanitization supplies in a timely manner.

"They just didn't care," she said. "We're not asking for dynamite to blow the wall out. We're asking for something to clean with, because none of us wanted the Covid."

Kitzmiller said that four or five humans are "hoarded" into a cell that is "a 6 by 10 room, if that big" for quarantine for two weeks upon admission. Kitzmiller said conditions are not sanitary, due to overcrowding and the lack of cleaning supplies.

There are 16 cells per "pod." She said that 56 women shared the pod. Four to five cellmates were in each cell.

During the pandemic, she said, the jail is so overcrowded that women were sleeping in a "day room," a large common area.

With the Covid-19 pandemic at its height and, despite fears of transmission from the floor, Kitzmiller said that each prisoner was given a two-inch foam pad to place on the concrete floor for sleep.

----Kitzmiller said that SRJ has lapses in Covid protocol that placed prisoners and guards at risk for contracting Covid-19.

"(On one occasion), they thought someone had a cell phone in our pod, so they take us, no masks, at 9 a.m. out of our cell and take us all to booking," she said.

She said that 50 women were crowded into a 14 by 14 booking "box," without masks or the ability to social distance. She said prisoners who had just left booking had not yet been quarantined and could have brought in the virus, without jail officials' knowledge.

"When they bring in new people, (booking) is where they go," Kitzmiller explained. "They want to lock you down for two weeks, and they take you straight back up there where new people are coming in.

"Then, they take you straight back and put you back in your cell.

"What's the point of quarantine?"

Initially, West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety had categorized the positive test at SRJ as a potentially "false negative."

A second test, however, confirmed the prisoner had tested positive for the illness, WVMAPS Communication Director Lawrence Messina reported Friday.

The mother of the infected prisoner's cellmate reported last week that her own son has also exhibited symptoms of Covid-19 and has been tested. The woman said that a second son had died while at SRJ, though not from Covid-19.

Kitzmiller's attorney has sent a letter to SRJ officials to inquire about practices at SRJ and treatment of prisoners at the jail.

Robert Dunlap, a Beckley attorney and Ward 3 representative on Beckley Common Council, said Friday that he wrote the letter after Kitzmiller and other clients reported to him that they are suffering inhumane conditions at the jail.

"You're going to have government actors that say (prison) is meant to feel like a punishment," Dunlap said. "Perhaps, but they also shouldn't be put in harm's way.

"In light of a pandemic, if we can't guarantee they're going to have medical care and sanitary conditions, we have a bigger problem."

Dunlap said he would not board his dog at a kennel that was operated under the conditions Kitzmiller and other prisoners have described to him.

Messina was speaking with WVMAPS officials on Monday to compile answers to a list of questions that were raised by prisoners' reports.

Kitzmiller pleaded guilty four months ago in Fayette County to aiding a person in confinement and said she turned herself in to West Virginia State Police.

She was working at Mount Olive Correctional Complex for a contracted food service company when she reportedly brought a cell phone to a prisoner who had befriended her.

Prior to the charge, Kitzmiller had never been "in trouble," she reported.

Her attorney said that Kitzmiller lives in Summersville. She did not know to watch the newspaper for the published arraignment date and missed her arraignment. A judge revoked her bond, and she spent 27 days at SRJ, Dunlap said.

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