Visitor access to jail restricted after inmate disease outbreak

PORTLAND – The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday it was restricting visitor access to the county jail after an infectious disease outbreak among inmates.

A half-dozen confirmed cases of an antibiotic-resistant staph infection were reported among jail inmates, and officials were awaiting results of a culture swab that may confirm a seventh case.

The affected inmates are from two separate housing units at the Cumberland County Jail, which has an inmate population totaling about 435.

Sheriff Mark Dion said the suspension of contact visits took effect at 5 p.m. and would remain in place for 72 hours. During that period, visitation will be limited to phone calls, he said.

The six inmates have been confined to the jail’s medical wing, where they were being treated by the jail’s health staff, Dion said.

Populations such as jail inmates who often have depressed immune systems are particularly susceptible to such strains of staph infection, Dion said.

“We’ve directed the nursing staff to take cultures from any inmate who displays any type of lesion, skin eruption or weeping wound,” the sheriff said, noting that the precautions were in accordance with guidelines set by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.