Haynesville Correctional Center COVID-19 Protocol Failures

MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 28, 2021

HAYNESVILLE CORRECTIONAL CENTER:

COVID-19 is spreading to inmates at Haynesville Correctional Center. Staff members at Haynesville are working hard to put on the appearance of following CDC protocols. However, they are responsible for spreading the virus within the complex.

Staff members walk around with their masks on their necks while writing citations for inmates not wearing theirs.

Inmate Nicholas Hammond observed and reported the following:

“Treatment Officer C. Veney was seen with three Inmates in her office with her mask below her nose and mouth. But just before the meeting, Veney was handing out citations to inmates doing the same.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, the institution passed out two masks to every inmate. The institution was to clean one mask while the inmate wore the other. Inmate Jeff Lee reports the institution has not cleaned any masks since April 2020.

Inmate Tony Dane, who also serves as an Inmate Advisor, reports:

“When Inmates go to the dining hall to eat, staff will lock as much as 30 Inmates in a 6-foot-by-10-foot vestibule, where there is a sign indicating six feet social distancing is required.”

Dane also says that announcements are made several times a day for mandatory sanitation, but nobody actually does the work.

Inmates are routinely frisked without cause. The staff member wears gloves to protect themselves from the virus’s transmission but does not change the gloves between contact with inmates. The staff does not care if they transmit the virus to other inmates as long as they are protected.

Dane further reports:

“Due to the institution being short-staffed, Staff members will go from Red and Yellow zones, which are under quarantine, to Green zones, which are virus-free. This is what causes the spread of the virus to the entire compound.”

Correctional Officers told Dane they are concerned for their safety because they are ordered to violate protocol.

Dane observed staff members quitting because of the hazards of catching the virus.