NC to end controversial COVID quarantine program in Durham motel
This story was updated at 6:33 p.m. May 12, 2021, to add a DPS spokesperson’s comments regarding a program participant.
The N.C. Department of Public Safety is ending a program that since last fall has quarantined some men being released from prison in a Durham motel.
In a statement to The News & Observer on Tuesday, DPS said it never intended the program to be a long-term operation. The contract for the program expires at the end of May.
“With new COVID-19 cases on the decline and vaccines more widely available, the department is moving toward the close of the program,” the department said.
“There are transitional housing locations for male offenders across the state,” it continued. “At the beginning and height of the pandemic, many of them were not able to take in recently released individuals for quarantine.”
The program, which began in September, has seen hundreds of formerly incarcerated men housed at the Quality Inn & Suites on Hillsborough Road.
But while proponents said the program allowed men who might otherwise be homeless to safely quarantine during the pandemic, local activists said men in the facility endured unsanitary conditions, insufficient access to medical supplies and an ever-present fear of sickness.
The motel was the subject and site of multiple protests in recent months.
“The purpose was an important one, and a good one,” Durham Mayor Steve Schewel said Tuesday. “It certainly had some difficulties.”
He said he did not believe the protests influenced state officials’ decision to end the program.
DPS spokesperson Brad Deen said the last person was placed at the motel on May 3.
A similar facility for women in Black Mountain will remain in operation, he added, noting it is state-owned property.
Safety, legal concerns early in program
In January, volunteers from Rose of Sharon Catholic Worker protested to raise awareness of issues they said plagued the motel, including bedbugs, insufficient food and an inability to refill prescription medication, The N&O reported.
That same month, Emancipate NC, a project of the Carolina Justice Policy Center, released a letter questioning whether the state had the authority to detain released inmates at the Durham motel.
“Our big question is just: Is it legal?” Ian Mance, a staff attorney at Emancipate NC and one of the authors of its letter, told The N&O at the time.
A client of Emancipate NC, Reginald Cunningham, had stayed at the motel for seven weeks, the organization said. While there, it said Cunningham was denied access to his prescribed psychiatric medication beyond a 14-day supply, and later was arrested and re-incarcerated for “breaking quarantine,” it said.
On Wednesday a DPS spokesperson responded to an initial version of this story posted online, saying that Cunningham’s reincarceration was not due to breaking quarantine.
“No one from the hotel was returned to prison for non-compliant behavior regarding quarantine,” communications officer J. Gregory Thomas said in an email to The N&O. “Any arrests or subsequent reincarceration was related to other violations.”
The legal concerns have largely faded as DPS worked to address Emancipate’s primary concerns, but protests have continued to take place.
“It’s Durham, and we have a very robust, grassroots democracy here,” Schewel said. “I’m not sure if everybody from DPS expected that, but if you’re in Durham, I think you have to.”
This story was originally published May 12, 2021 at 3:44 PM with the headline "NC to end controversial COVID quarantine program in Durham motel."