Dougherty County Jail being cautious to avoid outbreak

DOUGHERTY COUNTY, Ga. – Dougherty County Jail is joining other institutions in encouraging social distancing.

The jail is suspending all visitation at least until April 6th.

Legal visitation is still allowed at this time.

Jail’s sanitation stations

Anyone coming in or going out of the facilities is encouraged to “gel in and gel out.”

In addition to sanitizing, the jail is making a number of changes to protect personnel and inmates from a COVID-19 outbreak.

John Ostrander

Chief Jailer, John Ostrander says, “We’re screening inmates, we got areas for quarantine, we have areas for isolation. We’re doing anything that we can do in accordance with the CDC guidelines and I feel that with those steps in place, and being fluid as we move forward and things change, we’re offering every level of protection possible.”

Ostrander says the inmate population is vulnerable and needs to be protected during these times

“We have a population that has to remain here in close proximity; there’s no option, they cannot socially distance, they can’t take many of the precautions that individuals outside, that have their liberty, would be able to take and so all that they can do is count on us to provide them with every level of protection that we can do.”

Ostrander says he feels confident the facility is well prepared.

“We feel that with these precautions in place we’re building a good wall of protection around the inmate population to keep them and the staff that work here as safe as possible.”

If an inmate does somehow contract the virus, there are isolation areas in place at the jail.