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ND jail seeks backup staff in case COs need to quarantine

The additional staff members would not be brought to the jail unless a large portion of the existing jail staff had to stay home

By Hannah Shirley
Grand Forks Herald

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The Grand Forks County Correctional Center is seeking security services to reserve in case a large swath of the county’s correctional officers are exposed to coronavirus. A request for proposals was signed by GFCCC Administrator Bret Burkholder on Wednesday, May 6, and proposals are due at 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 12.

Burkholder said contracting additional security is a common-sense precaution to take during the pandemic.

“It’s as simple as if we get someone in here that is positive and we have an all-officer call because that person is combative or whatever, and we rush and have 10 officers, eight officers, whatever it might be, that take care of that individual. Every one of them is going to get in a hands-on situation with them,” Burkholder said. “You could potentially take out more than half of a team, or two teams if it’s at the wrong time of day for us. And that’s why we need the backup plan.”

The additional security would not be brought to the jail unless a large portion of the existing jail staff had to stay home. Burkholder said such an event hasn’t happened yet. On Friday morning, he said only one staff member has elected to use their allotted sick days after developing COVID-19-like symptoms. No jail residents or staff have tested positive for COVID-19, and on Friday morning Burkholder said one inmate was in quarantine to be monitored for symptoms.

Burkholder added that contracting with a firm for backup security services will give jail staff the ability to stay home if necessary without straining the existing security at the jail. It’s a precaution Burkholder said could be crucial in preventing an outbreak of COVID-19 in GFCCC.

“When we’re talking about our general population, many of those people have been in here for many months, long before COVID-19 ever broke out,” Burkholder said. “So if they’re going to get sick, the way it’s probably going to get in here is going to be an asymptomatic staff member. ... So we want to make sure that if they’re not feeling well, they’re not reporting to work.”

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©2020 the Grand Forks Herald (Grand Forks, N.D.)

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