041113 PRISON HEALTHCARE
Inmates receive dialysis at the St. Clair Correctional Facility, the only state prison with that capability, Wednesday April 13, 2011 in Springville, Ala. (The Birmingham News/ Hal Yeager)
(HAL YEAGER)
Investigators from the Alabama Department of Public Health traveled to Holman Correctional Facility today to investigate an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness.
The public health department is also involved in a tuberculosis investigation at St. Clair Correctional Facility, where one employee tested positive for the illness. The employee worked in the segregation unit, and all inmates in that unit are being tested for the illness, said Robert Horton, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections.
Another gastrointestinal outbreak also recently hit the Hamilton Aged and Infirmed Center last week. Health officials determined that outbreak was caused by norovirus, a gastrointestinal infection that causes vomiting and diarrhea and usually lasts from one to three days, Horton said. Norovirus infections tend to spike between November and April, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
State Epidemiologist Dr. Mary McIntyre said it is too early to determine what caused the outbreak at Holman. The Alabama Department of Public Health was notified just yesterday about the outbreak.
"It's really early and it's ongoing," McIntyre said. "We are working with the Alabama Department of Corrections to get stool specimens, food samples and to determine the exact cause and the extent of the outbreak right now."
Tuberculosis testing was also done at St. Clair Correctional Facility yesterday, and results have not come back, McIntyre said. She said the Alabama Department of Public Health routinely does tuberculosis testing in the prisons. St. Clair Correctional Facility had an outbreak of tuberculosis just last year.
Maria Morris, senior supervising staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that inmate movement in and out of St. Clair Correctional Facility had been stopped. She also said that attorney visits to Holman had been suspended for the time being. Horton said visitation has been restricted to prevent further spread of the disease. Visitation was also suspended at Hamilton, but will resume on Monday.
All of these investigations have started right before the legislature begins debating prison reform. Morris said one of the goals of prison reform is to reduce overcrowding, which may lead to outbreaks like the one at Holman. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit against the state last year challenging conditions and medical care in the prisons.
"The prisons are holding twice as many people as they are supposed to hold," Morris said.
Overcrowding can put people in closer quarters, can tax the plumbing and cause other problems that lead to outbreaks, Morris said. She had heard reports that the water in some facilities never gets completely hot, which can keep laundry facilities from killing germs on clothes and bedding.
"There are a lot of problems where the overcrowding really exacerbates the conditions," Morris said.
Norovirus infections have also closed public schools in Satsuma and Demopolis. Horton said the virus can hit any facility with a lot of people.
"I know some schools have had the same thing so it's not isolated just to prisons," Horton said.
Updated at 10:12 a.m. on Friday, March 13 with comments from Robert Horton, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections.