What to know about changes to Muscogee County Jail, court system amid coronavirus outbreak
Local authorities are instituting new measures in the courts and county jail amid fears about COVID-19 spreading in Georgia.
Some court operations are being suspended, and new screening procedures instituted at the Muscogee County Jail.
The chief judge of the six-county Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit that includes Columbus has issued an amended order declaring a judicial emergency through April 13. The order does not apply to Columbus Recorder’s Court, which will continue to hold preliminary hearings for suspects being held in the Muscogee County Jail.
Chief Judge Bemon “Gil” McBride III first declared a judicial emergency Friday, writing that “no jurors or grand jurors shall report and no jury trials shall be held” during the temporary suspension, which he initially set through March 27.
On Saturday, Georgia Chief Justice Harold Melton declared a statewide judicial emergency through April 13, so McBride amended his order to match. The order states most court hearings are suspended for that period, except for bond hearings in which a defendant is entitled to a bond because the suspect has not been indicted for 90 days or more.
Also the court still may allow “consent bonds” for inmates who have negotiated guilty pleas or probation violation resolutions that would allow the suspect to be released with the time served in jail, to ensure “defendants in this narrow situation are not detained beyond the time they would have been released in the absence of this statewide emergency.”
All civil court proceedings also have been suspended, except for evidentiary hearings for temporary protective orders related to the stalking or family violence laws, and cases that risk “imminent danger ... to a party or dependent child,” the judge wrote.
Sheriff Donna Tompkins said incoming inmates will undergo a health screening at the Muscogee County Jail before they enter the facility, and those newcomers will be housed aside from the general population for 14 days to see if they develop symptoms of the infection.
Inmates already submit to a health screening to determine whether they’re in need of immediate medical care or have chronic ailments that require ongoing treatment, but those previously have been conducted inside the facility, after inmates have been booked in.
Now they’ll have a preliminary screening in a jail sally port where those arrested are unloaded, she said.
Also the jail for two weeks will suspend religious and other programs that involve outside visitors coming in to counsel inmates, to limit possible exposure, she said. Attorneys representing inmates still be allowed in, if an in-person visit is necessary, she said.
Other procedures may change if additional difficulties arise, she said: “We’re making the plans, but it’s rapidly evolving.”
Officers conducting the screening will ask whether the inmate has flu-like symptoms consistent with the novel virus or has been in the company of anyone displaying such symptoms, she said. Checking the person’s temperature also may be necessary.
“We’re going to leave most of that to the medical staff,” she said.
Jails are required to have an infectious disease protocol, because of the ever-present risk of infections spreading through a confined population, she said, noting the Georgia Department of Corrections also is advising local facilities on its procedures.
So, though the virus is new, the threat of disease is not, she said. “We have had people that certainly had tuberculosis before in the jail,” Tompkins said. Anyone with TB has to be isolated alone, she said.
On Monday, the jail had at least two inmates with seasonal flu, who are being held separate from others, she said.
Anyone else showing flu-like symptoms also will be kept separate from the general jail population, but not isolated in a holding cell, she said. A separate dorm or cell block will be set aside for them.
The jail has a capacity of 1,069, and its population Friday stood at 960, about 90%. “That’s why we have the availability of a dorm,” she said.
This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 3:33 PM.