• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers AssociationLos Angeles County Professional Peace Officers AssociationLos Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association

  • Uniform ShopMember Discounts
  • Star & Shield FoundationDonate/Request
  • Get Help NowContact a PPOA Rep
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Mission
    • Board of Directors
    • Staff
    • Insurance Agency
    • Annual Reports
    • PPOA Delegates
  • News & Events
    • Public Safety News
    • Week in Review
    • PPOA Members in the News
    • Calendar
      • Calendar & Benefits
      • Heroes Ride
      • Golf Tournament
    • Photo Galleries
    • Video Gallery
    • Star & Shield
      • Star & Shield Magazine
      • Issue Archive
      • Hidden Word Contest Entry Form
      • Advertise
  • Benefits
    • List of Benefits
    • Legal Counsel
  • Contact Us
  • Members
    • PPOA Member News
    • Member Events
    • Contracts
    • Tickets & Discounts
    • Legislative Advocacy
    • Political Action Committee (PAC Plus)
    • Resources
    • Forms
    • Retirees
    • Bylaws
    • College Scholarships
  • Join Now
    • Application for Full Membership
  • Uniform Shop
  • Donate
  • Get Help Now
Search

After COVID-19 recovery, first responders get back to work

April 30, 2020

This story below about two Custody Assistants who recovered from COVID-19 is an eye-opening excerpt from an Associated Press article (4/27/20) entitled “After COVID-19 Recovery, First Responders Get Back to Work”

LOS ANGELES — In jail-speak, it’s called “the line.”

For correction officers, it means any duty that requires working directly with inmates. Custody Assistant Sonia Munoz’s line is a 184-bed inmate hospital ward at the Twin Towers jail, with its beige walls and powder blue doors. It’s where she most likely contracted the coronavirus. And passed it along to her younger sister and her father.

Right now, Munoz, 38, is safe. She’s 10 pounds lighter, her thick uniform belt is tightened to the last notch, but she’s been transferred to an office gig, where she can line up three bottles of hand sanitizer on her desk and work alone.

Still, the line is there.

Any overtime shift could bring Munoz back. Her mother, 3-year-old nephew and 94-year-old grandmother escaped illness last time, but they may not be so lucky again.

It’s something her 27-year-old partner, Christopher Lumpkin, worries about.

On March 18, he became the first member of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, which oversees the nation’s largest jail system, to test positive for COVID-19. He likely passed it to Munoz and three other custody assistants. More than 60 sheriff’s personnel county-wide and at least 28 inmates have tested positive for the virus.

Using Facebook Messenger, Lumpkin and Munoz traded stories and symptoms, bedridden in their quarantined homes as the virus spread outside.

“I will pray for you guys as well,” Lumpkin wrote.

Now, Lumpkin is recovered and back on the line. He changes his gloves and sanitizes his hands each time he works with an inmate and keeps an extra mask hanging off his duty belt.

Munoz takes similar precautions in her office, separate from the inmates.

But she can’t avoid the line forever.

“I have to go back to the lion’s mouth.”

Original AP article, video and additional photos are here: https://apnews.com/ab5ceac4542026be8792fb6561f8f38e

Image may contain: 1 person

Primary Sidebar

Public Safety News

LASD Sergeant Saves Man from Choking

LASD Sergeant Saves Man from Choking

12/13/22 – NBC Los Angeles A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department… Read More

Steer Clear Holiday Rides for PPOA Members

Steer Clear Holiday Rides for PPOA Members

Nov. 24, 2022 – Jan. 1, 2023 PPOA wants to ensure that all members make it… Read More

Cancer Presumption Strengthened for Peace Officers in California

Cancer Presumption Strengthened for Peace Officers in California

by Robert Sherwin, Esq Lewis, Marenstein, Wicke, Sherwin & Lee   10/4/22… Read More

Copyright © 2023 Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association. All Rights Reserved. | Website designed by 911MEDIA