Regina Greene’s 22-year-old son has been detained in the D.C. Jail since October. For the past few weeks, she says, he has been coughing when they speak on the phone.

She said he got tested for COVID-19 last week, but still didn’t know the answer by Wednesday. Concerned, she has emailed several D.C. officials to ask about her son’s medical needs.

“I shouldn’t have to be researching DOC and finding out who I can talk to. I’m frustrated, it’s overwhelming,” says Greene. “I done cried, because my son — I can imagine how he’s being treated. He’s a human being. He’s not an animal in a cage.”

At the end of December, 164 residents in the jail — about 12% of people being detained by DOC – were in isolation because they had COVID. Around that time, 214 staff members — about 20% of corrections staff — were out of work with the virus. Those numbers have since fallen by more than half, but about 60% of residents of the jail remain in quarantine because of potential exposure to the virus, according to D.C. Health

The surge in cases has worsened an already strained situation for the city’s Department of Corrections — leading to complaints from jail residents, staff, and advocates that leadership has not done enough to respond to the facility’s most widespread COVID-19 outbreak to date.

This week, two DOC employees sued the department, arguing that they were being forced to report to work in-person even though their job responsibilities could be accomplished remotely. Family members of people incarcerated at the jail say they feel left in the dark on the facility’s response and concerned about the health of their loved ones. And in recent communications with D.C. Council members, the department indicated that there have been delays in access to booster shots, as well as the implementation of a rapid testing program.

“The alarming surge in COVID cases at the D.C. Jail presents an immediate public health crisis for D.C. that also serves as a mirror into the broader inhumane conditions at the facility,” said Nassim Moshiree, Policy Director at the ACLU-DC. “This crisis was entirely preventable, and negligence by the Department of Corrections has jeopardized the health of hundreds of D.C. Jail residents.”

DOC officials say they are responding to the outbreak by making sure staff and residents are regularly tested for the virus, quarantining residents who are in close contact with those who test positive, and continuing to educate residents about mask-wearing and vaccinations. Last month, the facility instituted a “modified stay in place” order, halting social visits and in-person programming in a bid to stem spread of the virus.

“The DC Department of Corrections has worked diligently to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our facilities and across our staff,” wrote a DOC spokesperson in late December. “Our goal is to remain flexible and to adjust our health and safety protocols as necessary to ensure the health and safety of our residents and staff.”

The ongoing surge and DOC response has changed daily life for residents of the jail in several key ways. People detained at the jail are now confined to their cells for 22 hours a day, and Greene says that means her son has had less time to shower and make phone calls. Since in-person visits have been halted, Greene has been unable to see her son face-to-face for the past month, including during the holidays. And she says COVID quarantine protocols have led to delays in her son’s ongoing court case (he is being held at the jail pre-trial).

Greene says one of her central frustrations is over how difficult it has been to get accurate and timely information about her son’s health and the facility’s response to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

“They should have a proper system put in place so a family member can be updated,” she says.

The surge has also strained staff at the facility.

Corrections officers have been working 12-hour shifts since April of 2020, according to Sgt. John Rosser, the vice chairman of the union representing D.C. corrections officers. He said that DOC had been planning to finally move officers back to eight-hour shifts, but the switch is now likely to be delayed because so many staff have been sidelined by the virus.

Rosser noted that the grueling 12-hour shifts have exacerbated existing issues that the department has faced with retention of corrections officers.

He spoke with DCist/WAMU as he himself was out of work with COVID – though he believes he contracted the virus from a family member, not at work.

“Praise the Lord, we’ve had no deaths,” said Rosser, noting that the current situation differs from previous waves of coronavirus at the jail. Earlier in the pandemic, three corrections staff and one detained resident died from the virus.

A DOC spokesperson said the agency has been testing all residents for COVID-19 weekly, requiring unvaccinated staff get tested weekly (about a quarter of DOC staff was unvaccinated as of earlier this year), and holding vaccine clinics.

But testing and booster administration have also been delayed at DOC in recent weeks, according to communications between DOC officials and D.C. Councilmembers. And though D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration announced in late December that it would distribute 50,000 rapid tests to the D.C. Jail and other congregate facilities, it does not appear that a plan for rapid antigen testing has been fully implemented at the jail.

A DOC spokesperson did not directly answer a question about the usage of rapid tests, saying only that they have been provided to the agency and that medical staff will be distributing them to staff and residents.

Additionally, booster shots were not available for residents of the facility until late last month, well into the latest omicron surge. DOC attorney Michelle K. Wilson said the delay was due to a shortage of vaccines in a letter to Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen at the time.

As of Jan. 3, 23 residents in DOC custody had received a booster shot, 22 of whom are held in the Correctional Treatment Facility, according to a letter sent from Deputy Mayor Geldart to Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White. Just one resident of the D.C. Jail had received a booster shot by then – months after they were made available to the general population.

Broader vaccination rates have also disproportionately been higher at the lower-security Correctional Treatment facility. As of the end of last month, 60% of residents there were fully vaccinated, in comparison to 37% at the D.C. Jail.

DOC officials have emphasized that the vaccine has been accessible in the facility: In total, over 1,400 people have been vaccinated while in DOC custody. And DOC has also said that despite the current modified lockdown at the jail, medical staff are continuing to educate residents about the vaccine.

Rosser, with the corrections officers’ union, said he feels like DOC “is doing what they can” amid the ongoing outbreak.

“Everything is being done, as far as I can see, to stem the tide of the COVID,” he said. “If you request help, help is being given. And like I said, once the company that they have testing us reports positive, they throw you out for 10 days.”

But other DOC employees have been more critical about jail management’s approach to the omicron surge.

Two employees who work in the programs and case management branch sued DOC earlier this week, alleging they are being unnecessarily forced to report to work in-person. The suit argues they could both reasonably work from home because programming at the jail has been halted, but were denied the opportunity to do so even as COVID-19 cases surged at the facility.

One of the plaintiffs, case manager Sonia Elias-Cueto, said in a declaration submitted as part of the suit that her office was located on a housing unit being used to isolate people with COVID-19, and “almost every other case manager has contracted COVID already.”

Elias-Cueto and the second plaintiff, Doreen Deterville, allege that managers at the Department of Corrections have not held themselves to the same standards as lower-level employees.

“When employees have made [requests to work from home], they have been refused, told only that DOC is a no-telework agency,” reads the suit. Meanwhile, the suit alleges, higher managers “have exempted themselves from the policy.

Through a spokesperson, DOC declined to comment on the suit, but said the agency was “committed to ensuring the continuity of our 24-hour operations while also protecting the health and safety of all residents and staff in our secure facilities.”

Moshiree, with the ACLU, acknowledged in a statement that it would be impossible to prevent the spread of the virus entirely in the jail, but argued that DOC had also failed to take actions to prevent the spread of the disease. She pointed to whistleblower reports that documented “irresponsible behavior from DOC staff that likely increased the risk of infection for both staff and residents, including a large holiday party for DOC staff at which many people gathered unmasked.”

Rosser, with the union, acknowledged in a phone interview with DCist/WAMU that the corrections officers union did hold a holiday party in December. But he argued the coronavirus was so widespread in the D.C. region at that point that it would be impossible to link the outbreak in the jail to any one event.

“It always boggles my mind that folks are desperate to pin the tail on the union donkey…it could have come from anywhere. Was there a party? Yes. Could someone have been there with the COVID? Probably,” said Rosser. But, he added, others who didn’t attend contracted COVID-19, too, and the virus was already spreading in the jail by the time the party happened.

Concerns about the outbreak come as the D.C. Department of Corrections faces scrutiny on several other fronts. In October, the U.S. Marshals Service found “systemic failures” during a surprise inspection of the D.C. Jail, including cell toilets clogged with human waste, guards punitively withholding food and water from jail residents, and other abuses. In response, the marshals service has transferred at least 200 people from the D.C. Jail to a federal prison in Pennsylvania and other federal facilities.

Earlier this month, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that former DOC Director Tom Faust would be returning to D.C. to take over at the department. Quincy Booth, who currently leads the department, will transition to an advisory role.

When asked why she made the decision to change the jail’s leadership, Bowser told reporters that she felt the pandemic had presented “a number of issues” for the facility.

“I felt right now,” Bowser added, “especially … given the challenges that we’ve experienced with COVID, that a change at the jail would help advance all of our relationships and the experience for people who are with us at DC Jail.”