Chavail Futrell got picked up on a bench warrant for missing court and was held at Allegheny County Jail on Feb. 8.

Even though there were holds on her for minor drug charges out of Allegheny and Fayette counties, both were lifted by Feb. 10.

Still, Futrell, 35, wasn’t released.

Instead, she said that while she was sleeping on the floor of her cold cell on the fourth floor of the jail in the early morning hours of Feb. 12, a rat bit her left hand.

Futrell, a Monessen resident, was released from the jail a few hours later. She eventually sought medical attention at Jefferson Hospital.

She needed rabies shots.

Futrell’s description of her five days at the jail paint a bleak picture.

“It’s inhumane,” she said. “I’ve never seen nothing else like it. It was awful.

“I prayed the entire time I was in there.”

Warden Orlando Harper denied Futrell’s claims.

“The jail does not have a pest problem,” he said in an email. “Like other food facilities, the jail kitchen has a pest control plan in place. An exterminator visits the facility twice a week and treats all levels of the facility to ensure that remains the case. There have not been any reports of infestation or other issues from that team.”

Harper said there have not been any reports of any pests in cells or on inmate pods and no incidents reported.

Jail conditions

Futrell said that when she first arrived at intake, she saw few precautions being taken to prevent the spread of covid-19.

“They put us in a holding cell with 15 other people right off the street,” she said.

No one was wearing masks; the cell toilet was full and couldn’t be flushed; there was no running water, she said.

“We’re literally standing shoulder-to-shoulder, elbow-to-elbow,” Futrell said. “We’re all on top of each other.”

When she complained to a correctional officer, he told her to “Shut the [expletive] up,” she said, and threw another woman in with them and locked the door.

Harper denied Futrell’s claims.

He said the jail continues to follow the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the state Department of Corrections and state and county health departments in how to deal with covid-19.

“This includes requiring jail staff to be masked, as well as others who are in the facility,” he said. “Physical distancing is also followed. Masks are provided to all inmates, and they are required to wear them.”

Further, Harper said that if a cell in intake doesn’t have running water or a working toilet, it is not used.

When Futrell was finally moved to the fourth floor, she said, the crowding was better, but the conditions were not.

Futrell said that each morning as part of covid screening, a nurse would come to the female pod to take the temperatures of the women being held there.

“Everybody came up at 92 or 93 degrees,” she said.

Futrell wore four shirts, two pair of pants, four pair of socks, she said. Still, she said, her temperature was still 92 degrees. Futrell described feeling light-headed and dizzy — that her heart felt funny.

She thinks she was hypothermic.

“It’s so cold in there, you don’t want to move,” she said.

Although she had two blankets, Futrell said she had to use one to cover her mattress, which was on the floor of the cell when she arrived. It was a double cell with bunk beds, she said, but there was no insulation around the window by the top bunk, so it was warmer on the floor.

Harper said that no inmate is forced to sleep on a floor.

“The vast majority of cells have two bunks and only two people are assigned to each cell, including those on the female pod. Mattresses (4” thick) and two blankets are issued for each bunk,” he wrote in his email. “During rounds, if an inmate is found to be sleeping on a floor, the [corrections officer] would check on that inmate’s welfare and document it. There are instances when an inmate elects to sleep on the floor at his or her own will.”

Harper said that each time administration gets a complaint about the facility being too cold, the temperature is checked by the department of facilities management.

“The average temperature at the jail is 74 degrees,” he said. “National Institute of Corrections standards suggest that the acceptable temperature range is from 69 to 76 degrees in cold weather.”

Harper said that facilities management has replaced equipment in individual cells or cleared vents when necessary. If a repair will take a long time, an inmate is moved.

“The facility is brick and is located on a river, during a particularly cold winter, so it’s not surprising that there have been complaints,” he said.

Harper said that because of a consent order reached in May concerning the covid-19 pandemic, the jail can only allow a limited number of inmates out of their cells at any given time to ensure physical distancing.

“As a result, inmates are moving around far less than they have in the past,” Harper said. “A person who moves around more has an elevated heart rate which, in turn, increases their body heat.”

He said that there have not been any low temperatures documented in the covid-19 temperature checks.

The rat bite

Although Futrell’s court docket sheets show that the Allegheny County hold was lifted on Feb. 9, and the Fayette County one was lifted on Feb. 10, jail administration said it didn’t receive her paperwork from Fayette County until 4:45 p.m. Feb. 11.

She was released at 8:32 a.m. Feb. 12.

“In order for an inmate to be released, the court paperwork must be received by the facility,” Harper said. “There is often a delay between the time of the court’s order and when the paperwork is transmitted and received at the jail. An entry of the order in the docket is not sufficient for release.”

Harper said that as part of the release process, an inmate receives their current medications and also can meet with a social worker to ensure they will have proper clothing and housing upon release.

Had Futrell been released when the jail received her paperwork, she said, she would not have been bitten by the rat.

“In the middle of the night, the rat came out and bit me on my hand,” she said.

The bite woke her up, Futrell said, and she saw its tail as it scurried under the bed of her cellmate.

The bite left two puncture wounds in her hand, which quickly began burning, she said.

Futrell was released a few hours later without telling jail staff that she’d been bitten. She said she let it go over the weekend. Finally, she went to MedExpress in Belle Vernon and was then sent to Allegheny Health Network’s Jefferson Hospital on Feb. 17.

The doctors confirmed it was a rat bite, she said, and told Futrell she needed to get rabies shots immediately. On that first visit, she said, she received four shots — one in each arm and one in each thigh.

The second time was just one shot, as was the third, Futrell said.

The shots make her nauseous, she said, so she also had to take an anti-nausea medication.

Her fourth and final shot is scheduled for Friday.

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