National Guard gives COVID-19 vaccinations to incarcerated in Maricopa County jails

The Arizona National Guard has assisted with vaccinations in the Maricopa County jails since Tuesday.

County spokesperson Fields Moseley said Correctional Health Services has partnered with “a team of Army Guard Medics personnel to administer COVID-19 vaccines, boosters, and flu shots to high-risk patients.”

Moseley called it a temporary, “collaborative effort” that was expected to last three weeks.

“The goal is to boost the number of COVID-19 and Flu vaccinations in inmates before the height of flu season and return to the community,” he said.

A request sent to the County’s Emergency Management Department on Oct. 22 stated “Maricopa County Correctional Health Services is requesting 2-5 medics daily M-F. Start date TBD until 12/15/21 to assist in COVID-19 vaccinations.”

The request said the medics would administer Moderna or Janssen vaccines. “This would be at all six MCSO facilities on a rotating basis.”

The request comes on the heels of a separate recent request from the Sheriff’s Office for 135 National Guard troops due to staffing shortages at the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office rescinded the request, but said they are still looking at ways to use National Guard troops in the jails.

“Three days per week, between one to three Medics have been deployed to assist CHS with the COVID-19 and Flu vaccination at any MCSO jail,” Moseley said. “Thus far, we have vaccinated a few inmates who requested to be vaccinated at LBJ and the Estrella jail.”

Families of incarcerated people at Estrella Jail concerned for loved ones

A person incarcerated in the Estrella jail since February told the Republic they received vaccination from a National Guard member this week after waiting for several months and eventually becoming infected in the jail.

The Republic is not naming the incarcerated person because they fear retaliation. They claimed that COVID has been spreading rapidly among the Estrella jail population and allege the jail is not taking the necessary precautions. The incarcerated person says the jail has been mixing COVID-positive prisoners among the general population and failing to observe the proper quarantine protocols.

The Republic has interviewed three separate families who are all concerned for the wellbeing of their loved ones, who they say are being held in rooms with more than 100 other people in the Estrella Jail. All stated their family members reported many cases of people with COVID-like symptoms in the jail.

They say their loved ones have been requesting vaccines for several months and complained of dirty conditions with a lack of access to cleaning and hygiene supplies. 

“They could prevent all of this if they were giving vaccines,” one family member said. “They could have prevented so much suffering.”

“They have zero control of any kind of containment,” one mother of an incarcerated person said. “The room she’s in is filled with women, stacked on top of each other in bunk beds. It’s full of germs. It’s a petri dish — and they keep stirring it up every time they move them around.”

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and Correctional Health Services refused to specify how many people at the Estrella jail are currently positive for COVID-19.

"MCSO continues to work closely with CHS and follow Public Health Guidelines in terms of using quarantine, cohorts and medical observation housing," said MCSO spokesperson Norma Gutierrez-Deorta.

"Printed CDC advisories regarding the virus, symptoms and personal hygiene are posted in each housing area. The same advisories are also electronically available to the inmates on their tablets. All Inmates are issued masks and have access to bars of soap and cleaning supplies to use in their housing units, bathrooms, cells, common area surfaces like table tops."

As of Friday, the County dashboard says there are 49 active cases in custody across the whole jail system. People incarcerated at the Estrella jail and their family members claim the actual number is much higher.

Have a news tip on jails or prisons? Reach the reporter at jjenkins@arizonarepublic.com or at 812-243-5582. Follow him on Twitter @JimmyJenkins.

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