Terrell Leonard is being held in Allegheny County Jail on probation.
At the end of January, he learned that one of the correctional officers working on his pod, 2D, had tested positive for covid-19.
A while later, he said in a court statement that pod workers and then prisoners on his pod also began to experience symptoms.
By Feb. 1, Leonard, 28, who has sleep apnea, a deviant septum and allergies, said he developed a fever, sore throat and hot and cold sweats. Within two days, he said he had lost his sense of taste and smell, had body aches and had breathing problems.
On February 7, he tested positive for the virus and was transferred along with several other inmates to pod 7D, where they are being held under quarantine.
As of Monday, 38 inmates in the jail had been tested positive for covid-19, while 15 staff members were also positive.
The population of the prison on Monday was 1,623.
Warden Orlando Harper declined to say how many inmates were in quarantine or solitary confinement. According to Tuesday, ten pods were in quarantine and three in isolation, according to an email from the jail obtained by the Tribune Review.
Prisoners in isolation, Harper said, are the ones who have covid. Those in quarantine are people who have been, or may have been, exposed to the virus, and whose movement is restricted to see if they get sick, he said.
Jaclyn Kurin, a lawyer at the Abolitionist Law Center, said one of the reasons the virus is still spreading in prison is inadequate testing.
In December, she said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had updated the guidelines for correctional facilities, and recommended mass testing to prevent asymptomatic spread if there were positive cases or a high transmission rate.
Yet, she continued, the prison does not follow the lead.
“The outdated, symptom-based testing practice of ACJ comes down to people’s temperature. “It does nothing to detect asymptomatic employees and imprisoned individuals,” Kurin said.
Harper disagrees.
‘As has been done throughout, the facility complies with the recommendations of the CDC, (Pennsylvania Department of Health), (Pennsylvania Department of Corrections) and the Health Department, as it covers all of its policies and procedures relevant to covid, including testing, and this under the guidance of its medical provider, (Allegheny Health Network), ”Harper said in a written statement.
Kurin spoke to more than 30 inmates in the prison who had the virus.
“None of them were questioned by the Allegheny County Department of Health or the prison they were in contact with,” Kurin said. “There is no contact detection.”
Most of them, she said, had the same experience as Leonard.
When he and the others were transferred to his pod, he said in his statement that they had taken their belongings, including blankets and mattresses, with them – and it was never disinfected.
Leonard, who was convicted of DUI, assault, gun and drug charges, said the quarantine pool did not have hot water; that the people who were there did not put on any clothes; and they did not have enough soap to wash themselves.
Viveca Jones, Leonard’s mother, said her son was still ill, but that he had returned to his original pod – still with the same bedding.
“They’re still sick down there,” she said. “He says his chest hurts when he goes to bed at night.
“He said it felt like he had ash in his lungs.”
Jones spoke to her son daily during the quarantine period and he repeatedly told her how cold it was and that there was no hot water.
Harper said that is not true.
“As far as 7D is concerned, we have not had any problems with the hot water yet,” he said.
Carla Moser said her brother Mike Kiselka, who has neuropathy from previous cancer treatment, said he was so cold during his quarantine in jail that he could not move his hands and feet.
“He literally cried at the end of our conversation,” his sister said. “It’s not like him.
“He said, ‘My whole body hurts, my lungs and my back.’ ‘
She said Kiselka, who was released in a halfway house but then back in jail, has not been tested yet but is in quarantine.
He pleaded guilty last week to his third DUI and was ordered to serve one to two years in prison. Moser said her brother wants to appeal his sentence, but would rather be sent to state prison than stay in jail.
Paula Reed Ward is a staff writer for Tribune-Review. You can contact Paula by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .
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