A plan of action

At this time of the year with the flu season beginning to take hold, people are taking steps to avoid being in places or situations where they could come in contact with anyone sick.

But what about correctional facilities, where the options are limited and people are incarcerated, thus having little choice but to be among each other?

When the new Williams County Law Enforcement Center was built, the correctional facility was improved by creating a sick bay. Williams County Sheriff Scott Busching said the sick bay consists of three isolation cells to move inmates to when they're found to be sick.

"When an individual is showing signs of illness, we put them in one of the three negative-pressure isolation cells," said Busching.

Busching said the cells have separate ventilation so that the air being breathed by sick inmates isn't being circulated throughout the building and getting anyone else sick. When interacting with those in the sick bay, Busching said they use universal precautions such as gloves and masks.

In the event of there being more than three sick inmates things can become more difficult to deal with, said Busching. He said they have regular visits from physicians and have some tougher decisions to make when the number of sick increases.

Busching said when the cells are all full and they have a sick inmate who needs to be in the hospital, in some cases there is the option of getting a personal recognizance, or PR bond approved for the individual.

Busching explained that this would only be something under consideration for lower-priority inmates who committed lesser crimes. They would then have to come back to the jail to complete their sentences.

"There are some people that belong in here; there's no way they'd be going anywhere," said Busching.

Busching also said he is concerned about the lack of H1N1 vaccine for correctional officers. He said one officer was already out with the flu, although he wasn't sure if was H1N1.

"My concern is more for the officers; I'd like to see some priority given for the vaccine," said Busching.

He said none has been made available to correctional facility staff and he has no idea when any might be. He said currently it's a wait and see situation.

Having sick correctional officers is a concern, he said, due to the shortage of staff the department already faces with growing numbers of inmates.

"When I get short on jail staff, I have to pull some off patrol, and that's just not a good situation for anyone," said Busching.

Busching said there's always the possibility of seeing an outbreak of flu or other types of sicknesses when you have people who have to be locked up among each other.

"It's going pretty well so far, but that could change at any time," said Busching.

With the people they're dealing with being incarcerated for crimes and not having their freedom, it makes for fewer options on how to deal with health issues than people on the outside.

"It's difficult in this environment when you have to deal with most of these problems in-house. If we were to have a pandemic, it would have to be taken care of right here."