Sheriff Mosher discusses pandemic's impact on his office

In a recent wide-ranging interview with the Daily Mail, Vernon County Sheriff Jason Mosher detailed the many different ways that the global health pandemic has altered his office.

For starters, Mosher said the jail's overall inmate population has been significantly reduced. Mosher noted that his office has a contract with Kansas City to transport and hold inmates in Vernon County. The number of transports, however, has significantly declined in recent weeks.

"We've backed way off on our outside-of-county housing to try to free up room in our jail," Mosher said. "Before all of this started, we were averaging 130 to 140 inmates. In our county, we never turn our inmates away. If they get a warrant, they come to jail. So whatever space we have left over, we try to rent out to bring money to the county. We still have a few of those coming in, but we reduced those by a lot. Our numbers since all this has started have been under 100. Usually ranging in the 80s, down from 140. And most all of that was out-of-county (numbers) going down."

The Vernon County Sheriff's Office (VCSO) has two separate contracts with Kansas City municipality, which pays out $24,000 a month. Mosher said the inmates being held from Kansas City are related to misdemeanor charges only, such as traffic infractions. Mosher added that his office has administered enhanced screening of K.C. inmates since onset of the outbreak.

Mosher also said the money from the contracts is critical to VCSO funding.

“Because we have a contract with them, if we were to cut it completely off, it would probably eliminate most of our income,” he said. "So, we’ve agreed to still hold them under strict conditions. They’re being screened in Kansas City before we even pick them up. Our transport staff is then screening them before they even get on our transport vehicle. Then, we’re screening them at our facility like we do with everybody else before they even come in.”

Additionally, the inmates from K.C. are held in a separate dorm away from the Vernon County inmates.

“Kansas City people are never around Vernon County inmates,” summed up Mosher, who noted that many of the Kansas City individuals have been at the facility since before the outbreak started. "They were on a city — two or three-month sentence, and already here before the stuff (pandemic) started.”

Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, Mosher said his office transported 15 to 20 inmates per day Monday through Friday. That number, however, has significantly dwindled. But even transporting a few per day satisfies the contract. Mosher noted that arrests have been down in Kansas City, another factor impacting the amount of transports his office carries out.

“They’re still paying us $24,000 a month, even though we’re hardly transporting anybody back-and-forth," he said

Mosher said the revenue is helping to pay for hundreds of masks they have on order, but have yet to arrive.

“Those are expenses that we really hadn’t budgeted for,” he said. “That revenue definitely helps pay for a lot of the equipment that we’re needing now.”

Mosher said the VCSO now screens inmates for Covid-19 symptoms prior to intake, including temperature checks and a symptom-related questionnaire. Mosher noted that the screening process takes place in the sally-port (garage bay), as inmates are no longer brought into the booking pit. When local law enforcement arrives to the sally-port, the inmate is met by jail-staff, including medical personnel, where the new protocols are carried out.

"Out of all places, jails are probably near the top on the list as far as the danger if you do get it spreading — because of the closed, confined spaces," he said, noting that they have yet to have a Covid-19 positive inmate.

If an inmate passes the screening process, they are then held in a separate area from the general population for approximately five days, as long as there's sufficient room to do so.

"This is done as a double precaution to be sure nothing comes up before they're placed in a pod with others," Mosher said. "Our full-time nurse in the jail is keeping a good eye on all of the inmates. She checks temperatures, looking for any symptoms. So, if somebody had something that stood out, we could pull them out right away and separate them. So far, we haven't had anybody like that. To some extent, there's going to be nothing that's foolproof. We're kind of keeping our fingers crossed and doing everything we can."

Mosher added that VCSO staff has steadfastly disinfected the entire building, working two-hour rotations for the round-the-clock cleaning.

"Every two hours they're mopping the floors, spraying counters down," Mosher explained. "Every time an inmate is pulled out of a cell they're going in and spraying the cell down with disinfectant. We're constantly cleaning everything back there to help keep it from spreading, in case somebody had it and wasn't showing symptoms."

Mosher also noted that their jail pods have reverse-air flow systems, to snuff out any potential cross-contamination that may occur. This creates a negative airflow where air from one pod cannot travel into another.

While it's a scenario that has yet to play out with the VCSO, Mosher said that if an inmate failed the screening they would not accept them.

"We would invoke the unfit-for-confinement policy under the statute, and refer them to a hospital, and refuse to accept them," he said. "If we had somebody showing symptoms charged with rape or murder, or something like that — we'd have to make an exception, and (quickly) figure out how to deal with that."

As far as traffic stops, Mosher said his office is without a doubt taking extra precautions.

"I don't want people to think it's free reign right now," he said. "But, we've our deputies to use discretion and common sense. Some of the violations that we're supposed to enforce, they may not be as strict on that right now because we're trying to reduce contact. What they're for sure looking for is if anybody's doing something that we consider dangerous to other people. If a driving habit is something that's going to cause an accident, or get somebody hurt, they're still doing those stops. But even on those, we're trying to keep our distance — and not get too close to people."

Mosher said that his deputies wear gloves, but are not required to wear masks for traffic stops, due to the VCSO's limited supply. Masks, however, are being donned by VCSO personnel for medical and domestic calls. For traffic stops, officers are instructed to remain six-foot away when outside of their vehicle. Mosher said officers, especially Highway Patrol, can also instruct the vehicle occupant to keep their window rolled up, while holding up their driving license and insurance, so the officier can take down the info that way.

"Our guys are doing that as well, so we're not actually touching anything," Mosher affirmed.

Mosher also said that Missouri citizens are not required to travel with documentation noting that they're an essential employee.

"That's not something people should be worried about," said the seventh-year Sheriff. "We encourage people to follow the stay-at-home order and be safe, but we also don't want people to be in fear of local enforcement — of, 'am I going to get pulled over if I go out to the store, or if I don't do something right will I get arrested?' That's not the point of the order. The order is to tell people what we need to do to keep everybody safe, and help get rid of this virus. We definitely won't be pulling people over and asking for papers or anything like that."

Major topics of discussion locally have revolved around social distancing guidelines, enforcement of those, and which businesses are considered "essential."

Mosher said that while his department has received relatively few calls about these matters, it's a civil matter, and is best handled by the health department.

"It's a health department order, so it's enforced through them," he said. "They can provide guidance on whether or not something like that is okay or not. Most of the people who call us, are calling because they want to know what they need to do so they don't get in trouble. We've had a few churches ask about doing a pull-up drive-in service, where everybody is in their own cars. We've referred them to the health department."

Added Mosher: "I definitely don't want my deputies running around trying to write tickets based off how they interpret a health department's order. I feel more comfortable referring that back to them for a decision on that. If it's reported to us, we can take a report for documentation and refer it back to them. If the health department deems a place is in violation, they can contact that place and tell them — 'you're in violation, this is what you need to do to correct it.' If they don't listen, then the health department can file for a civil hearing in court. Once they're in court, it would be the judge who can actually impose that fine. Or a judge could side with the health department, and order a business temporarily closed. And then the judge can order law enforcement to enforce the civil order."

Mosher continued: “That's kind of the process that would play out if something happened where somebody just wasn't cooperative. So far, we haven't had any big issues like that. We've had a few people inquire about businesses that have remained open, and we refer them to the health department — because they're the ones who would need to make that call. Especially since our guys aren't health experts. But, most people in Vernon County seem to be fairly cooperative, and trying to do their part to help."

Mosher discussed his department's biggest challenges brought on by the pandemic.

"Everything before this that's happened, even if it's unexpected, is something we were kind of prepared or trained for," Mosher began. "This thing has been a first for everybody, which makes it hard, or even a bigger surprise, because we weren't prepared to deal with something like this. Typically, there' somebody we can turn to and say 'hey, we haven't dealt with this before, so what do we need to be doing?' But everybody else we call tells us the same thing, that they haven't ever had this happen before either."

Said Mosher: "The last time we had stuff like this happen was maybe back in the 1940s. You've got some of the population that might remember that, but a lot of the people dealing with it now — medical providers, law enforcement, hospital workers, this is all new to everybody. And even then, with issues we had before, I don't think they were on a national level like this — with the stay-at-home orders across the entire country. This biggest challenge has been trying to deal with something that nobody really has any answers for. Everybody's trying to figure it out as they go."