MEMPHIS, Tenn —
Local 24 News spoke exclusively to an inmate at the jail about practices there after Desoto County officials addressed a COVID-19 outbreak at the jail earlier this week.
This inmate first notified Local 24 News about the outbreak before it was addressed Tuesday, and now, she’s worried she may have COVID-19 and exposed her family.
The inmate, who is a woman, wants to remain anonymous. She is serving weekend time at the jail for a driving charge and still has three weekends left to serve.
She became suspicious something was going on when she noticed there were no jail trustees working and she wasn’t given a mask when she was first booked.
“No masks were given until Sunday - not even the guards had on masks,” she said.
The inmate started serving weekend time Friday, September 4th at the Desoto County jail, two days before she said she was properly given a mask.
“One dormitory house 30 women, the other houses 48 - and no social distancing. We didn’t have any hand sanitizer. We were supposed to have two jumpsuits, only got one,” she said.
She said the reason she was only given one jumpsuit last weekend was due to jail trustees who typically do laundry were not there.
“We only had one towel to begin. Our lunches were being late because they didn’t have anyone to feed us because the trustees were in quarantine,” she explained.
Tuesday, Desoto County Chief Deputy Justin Smith addressed the COVID-19 outbreak at the jail and confirmed 11 inmates have it and two are showing symptoms. Smith said the inmates were isolated.
“They are restricted and there’s a limited contact with staff and we are actually talking through a door to inmates. They do have 5 medical checks a day,” Smith said.
The national guard is expected to test more than 600 inmates and staff at the jail.
Local 24 News has learned inmates serving weekend time for misdemeanor offenses were released late Friday evening due to safety concerns. They will have to serve their time later.