Detention center lobby open to public

The Cullman County Detention Center lobby and Cullman County Sheriff’s Office lobby have reopened to the public.

In a press release, Sheriff Matt Gentry said guests would have to follow social distancing rules and that no more than four people will be allowed in each lobby at one time. The new rules will remain in place for the foreseeable future.

Gentry also stated the lobbies would be sanitized throughout the day, and would receive a deep cleaning after hours before employees and visitors arrive the next morning.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, and until further notice, inmates who arrive at the Cullman County Detention Center have their temperatures taken and — even if they don’t show any sign of illness — are placed in a dedicated quarantine wing of the facility for their first 14 days of incarceration, Gentry told The Times in early April.

“We have a whole cell block that is set aside, with nobody in it except if they warrant quarantine. That includes new inmates,” said Gentry. “If anyone comes in our facility, we automatically quarantine them for 14 days.

“A lot of the measures that we are taking for coronavirus already were in place, because we use some of the same precautions during flu season,” he added. “I’ve been doing videos on the sheriff’s office’s Facebook page talking about our precautions. I’d say we’ve probably gone over and above almost any jail in the state, in terms of our safety precautions for both employees and inmates. We’re very aggressively safeguarding against the spread of disease in our facility.”

Gentry said there is either a nurse or a physician on staff at the detention center daily from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. From 10 p.m. until 6 a.m., inmates who need immediate medical attention of any kind are either examined on site or transported to Cullman Regional through an on-call arrangement between the sheriff’s office and Cullman EMS.

Vigilance in law enforcement doesn’t go away in the face of a pandemic. If anything, said Gentry, maintaining order during an emergency is one of the ways his office can assure the community that society will carry on in peace.

“We arrest people every day, and that’s not going to change,” he said. “Whether we’re having to take extra precautions with coronavirus or at any other time, we’re going to continue to arrest people. That’s why we’re very diligent in our full use of PPE [personal protective equipment]; in our cleaning; in our isolation measures; and in our monitoring of the health of our inmates and employees.”