BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week

CANTON -- The St. Lawrence County sheriff is hoping to keep the county jail’s inmate population down during the COVID-19 crisis.

“If it gets in there, we’re going to have some issues,” Sheriff Brooks Bigwarfe told the St. Lawrence County legislature during a Monday, March 30 finance committee meeting. The meeting was held online through Zoom to avoid a cluster of more than two dozen people gathering in one room.

He said as of his report, there were 62 inmates in the jail. He said they want to get pre-sentenced inmates out on electronic home monitoring through the Probation Department.

He said they are also no longer holding parolees on allegations of technical violations, which means they are accused of breaking the conditions of their release but haven’t committed a crime.

“We have parole holds … the state has lifted three so far that have been released,” the sheriff said. “We’re trying to reduce the inmate population as much as possible.”

One of the board members said he’d heard that state prison inmates are being transferred and held at local jails.

“We are getting calls from constituents about state inmates … being brought up to our facilities,” said Legislator Kevin Acres, R-Madrid. He is the finance committee chairman.

“We’re trying not to have that happen. I have an individual from the Marcy mental institution they’re trying to bring back to our jail, and I’m fighting that tooth and nail,” Bigwarfe answered.

He said all new inmates are put into an isolated area for 14 days before being placed in other areas of the jail. They also have a special housing area (SHU) where inmates who may catch the virus will be held until they get better. He said the isolation cells have negative pressure so the air they breathe is “ventilated outside and not into the facility any further.”

At the jail, they are screening every person who comes in.

“Anybody that goes into our facility, including me … is screened and tested for their temperature or they don’t get admitted,” Bigwarfe said. “We’ve implemented best practices for social distancing with staff and inmates … tough task to try to get them all separated.”

There is also a concern of the coronavirus spreading among the road patrol. One deputy has been tested for COVID-19 and is currently quarantined as a precaution, the sheriff said.

“If I get that in my patrol it might spread quite rapidly,” Bigwarfe said.

He said the road patrol officers are working with the county Emergency Operations Center, “delivering a lot of supplies for public health or anyone who needs supplies delivered.”

They’re still doing their regular patrols and responding to calls. They have had to speak with a couple bar owners who weren’t obeying the social distancing guidelines and ban on non-essential workers.

“Most people, we just educate them and it’s a positive outcome,” Bigwarfe said. “We just want to make sure nobody’s cross-contaminating each other.”

They’ve also done outreach among the local Amish community, since they don’t have internet or television.

We’re in the Amish community,” Bigwarfe said. “We’re not only going to the schools, we’re going to the bishops.”

“Still handling all complaints out there. We are doing some transports. Family Court is fully operational. We’re trying to scale it back,” the sheriff said. “We’re working on video arraignments for county court.”

He also warned that COVID-related scams are probably on their way, if they’re not already here.

“We’re going to start seeing some scams,” he said, adding that he’ll “be working hand-in-hand” with federal and state attorneys general to prosecute them.

He said to contact his office if you get an offer you are unsure about, and he will be releasing a statement discussing scams in the near future.