Sonoma County Jails Suspend All Visitations

From the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office:

March 16th, 2020

The Sherriff's Office Detention Division continues to work diligently to follow protocols and procedures to proactively prevent the exposure of COVID-19 into our two Detention facilities. Due to the recent discovery of community spread of COVID-19 in Sonoma County, effective March 16, 2020, at 1:00 pm, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office Detention Division will be temporarily suspending all visitation at both the Main Adult Detention Facility and North County Detention Facility. All in-person (contact) and non-contact visitations will be suspended until further notice.

All legal visits will be non-contact visits by appointment only. Arrangements for legal visits can be made through the Main Adult Detention Facility's lobby personnel.

All Inmate Programs within both facilities have been temporarily suspended. For further information and updates regarding Programs, call (707) 565-1624.

The Detention Division is aware that temporally suspending all visitation may cause hardships on inmates and their families and friends. We realize the ability to maintain positive relationships with loved ones will continue to be challenging. We believe these measures are the best way to safeguard the health of those in our custody, the staff responsible for their caretaking, and the community. This is precautionary to protect staff, inmates, volunteers, and family members from potential exposure.
We assure you that we will reassess this moratorium on all visitation as new information becomes available from our County, State, and Federal public health partners and State Correctional authorities.

Al Vernon, Assistant Sheriff
Detention Division
Sonoma County Sheriff's Office

This press release was produced by the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office. The views expressed here are the author’s own.