MT. GILEAD, Ohio — A new report from the Ohio Immigrant Alliance claims the Morrow County Correctional Facility failed to follow its own Infectious Disease Control Program as well as the National Detention Standards required in its contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, leading to the facility becoming the first county jail in Ohio and the first ICE detention center in the U.S. to be 100% COVID-positive.
“None of the inmates and detainees at Morrow County have been seen by a doctor in the facility, despite their COVID diagnoses. Nursing staff are not present at the jail overnight or on the weekends, and even when they are there, they often decline to provide health care, including Tylenol. Jail staff have repeatedly refused to call an ambulance for detainees in serious distress. What’s more, there are no interpreters available to translate detainee medical conversations, calling into question how jail staff are even making such life-or-death decisions in the first place,” the report states.
