State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale is urging county jails to expand inmate testing for the coronavirus.

Ashley Adams, director of nursing at Butler County Prison, said while the number of test kits it receives from Butler Memorial Hospital may be limited, the jail established multiple protocols early on that protect staff and inmates alike.

“We are incredibly proud of the way that the entire staff has stepped up and come together as a team to face this challenge head-on to keep our population safe,” Adams said.

In a news release Tuesday, DePasquale said Montgomery County tested all 948 of its inmates and urged other counties to do the same. However, DePasquale is not offering any additional testing resources to county jails, according to Gary Miller, a spokesman with his office.

Miller wrote that DePasquale recognized that administrators of “prisons (both state and county) are working hard to control the spread of the virus and that increased testing might be able to help in that regard. As the availability of testing improves, county officials might wish to discuss how to best allocate the tests for maximum benefit.”

But Adams said COVID-19 testing kits are scarce and there is no indication testing will be made more widely available. She said tests must be rationed for inmates presenting multiple symptoms linked to the coronavirus. Only one inmate at the county jail met that standard, and that test came back negative.

Currently, according to officials, the county jail has nine test kits on hand, although more are available.

Adams said the jail's testing protocol is based upon Butler Memorial Hospital's criteria: a patient must exhibit certain symptoms to be approved for testing.

Inmates who are “marginally symptomatic” with something like a cough, do not meet testing criteria. Instead, they will be put in medical isolation with full precautions as “a presumptive positive case” for a minimum of 14 days.

The prison is taking other precautions, such as quarantining new inmates for 14 days.

“We're doing a lot of preventative measures but we can't let our guard down,” Adams said. “The reality is this can get exhausting. We think about COVID-19 all day, and that can get tiring but it's not over yet.”

In response to the pandemic, the jail dispersed its 181 inmates across seven cell pods, allowing each inmate to have his own cell so they could practice physical distancing.

With a jail that can hold more than 500 inmates, physical distancing is easier to achieve than at other county jails that might be overpopulated, Adams said.

“I am confident that our current actions and continued diligence will have a major impact on the positive trajectory of our facility during this crisis,” Adams noted.

Adams said jail officials created a pandemic plan and staff continue taking precautions on a daily basis.

She said inmates cooperated and have been willing to adapt their behavior for safety purposes.

When correction officers are in contact with inmates, they have full protective personal equipment, including masks, Adams said.

“We're wearing full gear and literally disinfecting everything right behind them,” Adams said. “If they're just coughing, we won't test them because tests are still hard to get a hold of and they're being rationed.”

Adams said corrections officers have been taught proper procedures for using the gear, and she has worked with inmates to teach them best practices for hygiene and to be aware of the symptoms related to the coronavirus so they could self-report.

“They're taking it very seriously,” she said.

Copay fees have been waived for all inmates to encourage them to seek medical attention if they think they have the virus.

Meanwhile, state prisons reported 58 positive tests among inmates and three deaths as of Friday, according to DePasquale. Among state prison employees, 101 tested positive.

Adams noted that as the state government begins to ease precautions, allowing people to move out of physical isolation, the number of people contracting the virus might increase.

“Over the next few weeks as we see the community open up, we're potentially looking at the virus spike again,” Adams said, which could lead to potentially infected people entering the jail. “The difference is, now we're ready for it. The protocols are in place so we're ready to handle any potential spike.”