Staphing the Detention Center: A Problem That Joe Kernell will not get his
head out of the sand and address head-on.
The MRSA Staph infections at the County Detention Center is a fastspreading and brutal disease. And until the County Administrator
admits that it’s a big problem, this disease will be unleashed into our
community over and over again as prisoners get released and guards
go home at the end of their day. I am trying to point out: this problem
needs to be addressed head on, not glossed over and brushed off.
Read on and decide for yourself. Some of the pictures of what this
nasty disease looks like and what it will do to you if something doesn’t
get cleaned up — and soon.
Warning: Some pictures may be to graphic for some.
Meet Cassandra Green. She's a perky, 28-year-old black woman who from last
Friday until late Monday afternoon was under armed guard at Greenville Memorial
Hospital.
Why?
Because, says Ms. Green, in 2002 she contacted "Staph”, or Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), while serving time in the Greenville County
Detention Center.
Since then she has had 13 operations for removal of "Staph"-infected tissue,
resulting in long, ugly scars on her backside, lower stomach, leg, and arms.
Ms. Green's newest surgery at Greenville Memorial was last Friday, and today she has a gaping
wound in her back, stuffed with hospital bandaging as can be seen in the one photo. Of course,
Cassandra Green's story is not one that is going to attract a lot of sympathy in an almost-all-white
County Administration, She's in the Greenville County Detention Center today because, she says,
she was having MRSA surgery at Greenville Memorial when she was supposed to be checking in
with her parole officer, verifying this with legal hospital documentation.
There have been reports of hundreds of inmates and 25 plus Detention Officers
infected with "Mersa“ (some taking it home, infecting their children) over the
last three years at the Greenville County Detention Center,
At least 5 Guards have filed Workers’ compensation claims,
according to Milford O. "Chip" Howard III, an Anderson attorney familiar with
the detention center matter, and 84 lawsuits have been filed against The
Greenville County Detention Center. One case, according to detention center
employees who spoke anonymously because they have been told by Kernell
they will be fired for talking to me, a guard had to have part of her nipple
removed in a MRSA operation.
Mersa on the back
Of inmate
Chairman Herman Kirven and his administrator, Joe Kernell,
have tried to pretend the crisis at the detention center does not exist and has
attempted to crush all evidence first with an investigated committee, who after
questioning by me, admitted that they never even went into the jail, but met with the
Director in his office
A former prisoner of the Greenville county jail is in danger of losing his life due to a
deadly Staph infection he contracted at the detention center.
At least 20 jail employees quit their jobs in September for fear they would contract
that same infection, which has run rampant through the overcrowded detention
center for more than two years, and guards who have remained at their stations are
so afraid they’ll be hunted down and fired if they speak out about the peril that they
insist their comments be filtered through a union spokesman in Florida.
Mr. Jeter
The bacteria can cause skin infections that can
grow into open, oozing sores. If not treated
properly, the infection can spread to the bones,
joints, heart and lungs, and in Jeter’s case, it is
alleged to have affected his brain.
Roberts says Greenville jailers tell him outbreaks of
the so-called Staph infection have been a problem
at the detention center for almost three years.
Jeter is officially listed in stable condition, but
Roberts says Greenville jail employees tell him
Jeter was released from detention recently because
he is not expected to survive his stay in the
hospital.
Kernell first lied about what was going on at the detention center Oct. 17, 2006
when he told the media, “there isn’t any problem at the jail”. That was after the
Greenville News had reported a lawsuit had been filed against the county on behalf
of 25 disease-infected prisoners.
Kernell then lied to a Greenville County Council Committee of the Whole on Jan. 16,
2007, claiming special security doors had been installed at the detention center.
That was after I posted a video on my personal Web site showing a jail guard
getting assaulted by an inmate.
Kernell recanted his testimony under questioning by me, admitting the doors had
not been installed but were in the process of being manufactured.
County Councilman Joseph B. Dill also lied to the media before the meeting
testifying he had seen the doors in place. Under questioning by me, he conceded
he'd only seen pictures of the doors.
Ms. Green has been convicted, of her violations but this isn't the sort of offense that
warrants the death penalty. Yet this is what this woman may have received."
Infected knee
Treatment for knee
When I first discovered this epidemic at the jail, I contacted the Director Dorriety,
and tried to find out what was being done.
He told me that he was waiting for Kernell to make up his mind to release the money
For the proper treatment.
A few weeks later I contacted Mr. Dorriety and he had just got back from a meeting
with Kernell and he told me that Kernell finally decided to release the money so they
could get the proper infection fighting chemicals.
The proper outside government agencies’ have been notified.
And they will investigate this, even if I have to drag them down here myself.
Tony Trout
Greenville County Council District 18
www.TonyTrout.com
864-848-3311
The following next 2 pages is the report that Kirven and Kernell had typed up
hoping to cover up the Mersa Epidemic in our jails.
Please call or write the news media, and also call your
Councilor and demand something be done.
Remind them they work for you, not Kirven & Kernell Inc.
Tony Trout
Greenville County Council District
18
107 Silver Ridge Court
Greer, South Carolina 29651
864-848-3311/Fax-864-8488768
www.tonytrout.com
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