The official designation of the COVID emergency is having an impact on the operation of the criminal justice system in Daviess County.
After being shutdown by the pandemic, the work-release program at the Daviess County jail is opening a second pod.
“Once the federal government ended the COVID restrictions, that opened up the work release section of the jail,” said Daviess County Sheriff Gary Allison. “We have not had a reported case of COVID in the jail for quite some time. I felt comfortable allowing it to come back.”
During the COVID crisis, it was a big help to be able to hold prisoners in the work release pods so that they could be medically cleared before going in with the rest of the inmates.
“We were using work release as a COVID quarantine area. We would hold people there for three days before moving them into the regular pods in the back of the jail,” said Allison.