By Catherine Candisky
The Repository
CANTON, Ohio — The first woman to lead the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction was on the job barely a year when the coronavirus outbreak sparked the prison system’s biggest crisis in decades.
Annette Chambers-Smith finds herself under intense scrutiny as inmates and staff complain that not enough is being done to protect them, and local residents worry about the virus spilling into their communities.
As of Friday, 63 inmates and four prison employees — two guards and two nurses — have died of COVID-19.
About 4,450 inmates have tested positive, roughly 1 in 10, giving Ohio the second highest rate of prison cases in the nation behind Tennessee. More than 600 staff, or 1 in 20, also have the virus.
“We will continue to fight every day but understand a prison system is not a place, when there is open bay living, where you can keep COVID out for any length of time, and it’s not a place where it’s not going to spread,” Smith said.
“We have to deal with that each and every day, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Smith said department officials began taking steps to address the pandemic in February, more than a month before the first inmate was diagnosed, and continue to modify efforts as state and federal recommendations evolve.
Prison rules were eased to allow hand sanitizer with alcohol and prison workshops began making masks for inmates. Staff and inmates were grouped into “cohorts” and not permitted to interact with others to prevent spread.
Likewise, meals were reduced to two a day, activities and recreation discontinued, visitors banned and inmates in bunks instructed to sleep head to toe to put greater distance between them. Ohio’s prison population also has been reduced by about 2,000 through early release and a just-lifted temporary suspension of accepting new inmates.
Despite those efforts, the coronavirus continued to spread, at one point infecting 80% of those incarcerated at Marion and Pickaway correctional institutions. Cases at the two prisons have declined but the virus is now ripping through Belmont Correctional Institution in St. Clairsville in eastern Ohio, with growing outbreaks anticipated at other facilities.
Prisoner advocates have called on DeWine to release thousands more inmates, arguing the system remains overcrowded. Inmates and corrections officers dispute some of Smith’s claims, saying infected prisoners are often housed with those who are not and masks and other personal protection equipment are inadequate or unavailable.
“Everybody should have the opportunity to test at any time so that we can identify and deal with the spread of the contagion and even when people test positive, the department is not requiring anyone to test negative before they go back to work,” said Chris Mabe, president of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, representing 8,000 prison employees.
“If we’re not retesting for a negative then we’re sending people back to work between seven and 14 days and they could be re-infecting the institution.”
The rhetoric in Columbus, Mabe said, doesn’t match the reality in prisons.
“We know there are going to be missteps made. This is something we’ve never been through in our lifetime and hopefully never have to go through again. But it doesn’t look like it’s over and if we continue to bury our heads in the sand and not learn from our mistakes, we are doomed to repeat them.”
Critics also accused state officials of trying to hide the high number of cases by recently discontinuing mass testing of inmates at hard-hit prisons, which had become some of the nation’s top hot spots.
Smith denies the allegation, saying mass testing did not stop COVID-19 from spreading at Marion and the department is focused on slowing the spread so everyone is not sick at the same time and providing medical treatment those who need it.
“It’s not that we’re not testing or keeping numbers from people, or hiding things, we’re just trying to be smart about what we’re doing,” she said.
Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Smith director of Ohio prisons in January 2019. She was general manager of JPAY Payment Services which provides services to inmates and their families including e-mail and other communications. She previously spent more than two decades at the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, most recently as director in the Office of Administration.
Smith said the loss of life is the hardest to accept.
“Every one of these deaths of a person just kills me. I hate it. Everything we do is about trying to keep people safe but there is so much we don’t know about this disease,” she said.
“It’s all about keeping up with science and building a better mouse trap.”
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©2020 The Repository, Canton, Ohio