Solano County jails contending with apparent salmonella outbreak

FAIRFIELD – All three jails in Solano County have been afflicted with an apparent outbreak of salmonella poisoning that has sickened over 100 people in the jails for over a week, a spokesperson for the Solano County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.

The outbreak began last weekend.  The sheriff's office was unable to provide a total number of sick inmates but said that at its peak last week 117 people were sick. As of Tuesday, 15 people were still sick, according to sheriff’s office spokesperson Sgt. Rex Hawkins.

Jail staff canceled jail visits and locked inmates in their cells while they investigated the cause of the sickness, which caused symptoms including headaches, body aches, vomiting and diarrhea.

The Solano County Sheriff’s Office operates three jails in the county: the Stanton Correctional Facility, a 365-bed maximum security facility, the Solano County Justice Center Detention Facility, the county’s 740-bed main jail, and the Claybank Detention Facility, which has a capacity of about 400 beds.

Since the outbreak affected all three jails, jail officials concluded that food from a kitchen that serves all three jails was likely responsible for the outbreak.

Hawkins said that the county Department of Public Health has been working with food provider Trinity Services Group to clean the kitchen and test food for contamination. Hawkins did not know if the kitchen had reopened yet.

Salmonella does not spread from person to person, so the outbreak appears to be contained, Hawkins said. He said that the quarantine and visitation restrictions were lifted Tuesday night.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with new information from the Solano County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office initially said 15 people were sick but later acknowledged that at the outbreak's peak 117 people were sick.