Spokane County Detention Services starts aggressive testing strategy after quadrupled COVID-19 cases

Spokane County Detention Services has recorded 39 confirmed COVID-19 cases, more than quadruple the nine cases reported Friday.

In response, the Spokane County Jail and Geiger Corrections Center are implementing a group of new protocols to test and quarantine inmates, according to a news release from detention services.

Starting Monday, all staff will be tested weekly and all nonpositive inmates twice a week, the release said.

“We have always been aware that the risk of a major outbreak of COVID-19 at one of our facilities was a possibility,” Detention Services Director Mike Sparber said in a statement. “Over the course of the last nine months, I have been very proud of the work that the men and women of our agency have done to keep this virus out of our facilities.”

The county’s testing strategy stands out as an aggressive approach to tracking cases in incarcerated populations. State prisons continue to test mainly based on self-reports of symptoms.

While the nine previous cases were in Geiger Corrections Center in Airway Heights, as of Saturday the county reported a case in the Spokane County Jail, the release said.

As of Friday afternoon, the health district was not recommending mass testing at Geiger, said Jared Webley, public policy and communications manager for the county. By Saturday afternoon, the district reversed course, recommending testing all Geiger inmates, said Deanna Stark, health district spokesperson.

Stark said the district did not want to use up more testing resources than needed when there were few confirmed cases in the jail but decided mass testing was worthwhile after the new cases emerged.

As of Friday, detention services was mandating masks for all officers, Webley said, but starting Monday that mandate will extend to all staff regardless of proximity to inmates or other staff, the release said. Inmates will be required to wear masks unless they are alone in their cells.

Cynthia Manycolors, whose 28-year-old son, Bjorn Manycolors, is at Geiger, said her biggest concern in the week before the 39 cases emerged was staff’s lack of willingness to test inmates. She said at one point an incarcerated person transferred into her son’s building in Geiger and tested positive.

Her son told her one day he became upset when officers refused him testing, and over two guards not wearing masks.

Bjorn Manycolors also saw issues with a shared stairwell that connected a quarantined floor to a nonquarantined floor in Geiger’s B building. Webley confirmed both inmates and officers used the stairwell shared between floors, though the area is sanitized between uses.

Now facilities will set up isolation floors for all positive cases to isolate for 10 days. There will also be quarantine areas for exposed inmates to isolate for 14 days. Inmates who test positive in quarantine will move to the isolation floors.

The jail and corrections center will also respond to any new guidelines provided by the Spokane Regional Health District in the coming days, the release said.

Stark said the health district and county detention services are in nearly constant communication and are working on a comprehensive COVID-19 strategy.

SCDS is also exploring virtual alternatives for court visits and attorney-client meetings, using video services for visitations and working to make telephone services safer, the release said.

Until this week, Spokane County Detention Services had only seen isolated cases in inmates.