Still No Coronavirus In Will Co. Jail, Sheriff's Office Says

WILL COUNTY, IL — Officials with the Will County Sheriff's Office reported to Patch on Thursday that there are still no confirmed coronavirus cases in the county jail. This claim is difficult to verify, though, as the Sheriff's Office also told Patch that they have prepared no documents regarding coronavirus numbers in the facility. They said no records were available because no case of coronavirus has yet emerged in the jail.

"There isn't a record to keep," Will County Undersheriff Brian Conser said. "The answer to [Patch's] question, 'how many current inmates have tested positive [for coronavirus]...' is none."

Conser also said that there have been no coronavirus related deaths in the jail. The one inmate who county officials previously told Patch was suspected of coronavirus infection has since tested negative, he said.

Conser said that test kits are available for medical staff at the jail to make use of, but did not know how many there were. No records were given to Patch that could pin down a current figure. Medical staff at the jail are employees of the private healthcare company Wellpath, not county workers, and Conser said any test kits the jail may have would be provided by that company. Patch reached out to Wellpath to see if they knew how many test kits had been provided to the jail, but did not immediately receive a response.

Conser did confirm that the jail currently has no ventilators. Ventilators are medical devices that assist people with respiratory issues in breathing. As coronavirus specifically attacks victims' lungs and can make independent breathing difficult, ventilators are essential for treating severe coronavirus cases.

"'How many, if any, ventilators does the facility have available,' the answer to [that question] is none," Conser said.

Conser also said that while the jail does have a plan in place for addressing any coronavirus outbreak that occurs in the facility, he was unable to share details of that plan. He cited security concerns as the reason why. Currently, he said, protocol is to send any inmates suspected of coronavirus infection to a negative airflow cell whose air circulation system is isolated from the rest of the jail. The jail currently has four such cells. None, Conser said, are currently occupied.

"They do have a plan in place, but due to security reasons, they don't want to release it to the public," Conser said.

Last week, representatives from the Illinois ACLU urged officials in Will and other counties to conduct early releases of non-violent and low-level offense inmates. This, they said, was one of the best ways to help prevent further outbreaks from occurring behind bars.

"There's no doubt that the transmission of the coronavirus is a particular threat for those that are detained ... one of the things we know is these are just locations where social distancing can't be a reality. I think [prisons and jails] should think about all the tools that they have to reduce the population of the facility …. Expedited release, not holding people who simply are there because they can't afford a bail," Illinois ACLU representative Ed Yohnka said.

Kathy Hoffmeyer, a public relations official with the Sheriff's Office, told Patch last week that the jail's inmate population had been reduced from 603 to 579 inmates between the last week in March to the first week in April.

Conser said Will County jail was still releasing some inmates, but did not know how many.

"The courts, along with the state, have been reviewing these cases case-by-case," Conser said. "Of course we want to get those out that we can... but I can't give you any exact numbers on that."

Around the country and the state, jails and prisons have become hot spots for coronavirus outbreaks. Two inmates at the Cook County Jail have already died of coronavirus infection, and elsewhere in Will County an inmate at the federal Stateville Correctional Facility has also died.
As of April 10, there have been 16,736 confirmed coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S. It is estimated that over a thousand of those deaths were inmates.

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