ROME, N.Y. — Corrections Officer Monico Tebo was checking what a visitor brought into Mohawk Correctional Facility on Easter Sunday.
“I unfolded the first fold. I instantly felt like a smell that caused nausea,” said Tebo.
That was an envelope from a visitor’s pocket.
Then, in their coat pocket, more of what was in the envelope: ripped up papers with an oily substance.
“Double-bagged it. I looked at the sergeant. Last thing I remember saying April 5: ‘I’m going to throw up.’ The next thing I remember is waking up April 11, with tubes out of my throat, tubes out of my nose, and a machine breathing for me,” said Tebo.
Luckily, Tebo doesn’t remember most of what happened to her.
Unfortunately, her friend and co-worker, Jeanel Jalowiec, does.
“The noises that I was witnessing coming from her because she was gasping for air because her breathing was taken away from her was horrific. In the hospital she coded in front of me, and they slammed the hospital bed down and put paddles on her,” said Jalowiec.
Jalowiec also got sick from the unknown substance.
She was released from the hospital Easter night, only to be admitted the following Tuesday, until the following Saturday.
Home now, but still healing.
“Sleeping, not doing much of that. I just, I get the night sweats, I wake up screaming, I hear the noises,” said Jalowiec.
Almost as traumatic as the physical hurt is the abandonment they feel at the hands of New York State.
“Implement better policies and procedures, not to just keep the incarcerated individuals safe, but to keep us safe. We’re keeping the community safe. Who’s keeping us safe?” asked Jalowiec.
They say they have suggestions if anyone would listen. One of them is no-contact visits.
“Non-contact. Non-contact until we can get the drug situation under control and we can get people to listen to us for our safety first, who are public servants of New York State. No contact,” said Tebo.
Neither officer knows yet if they’ll be able to return to the jobs they could never imagine leaving.
NEWSChannel 2 has reached out to the governor’s office.
Corrections Officer Monico Tebo was checking what a visitor brought into Mohawk Correctional Facility on Easter Sunday.
Two correction officers who were hospitalized after being exposed to an unknown substance at Mohawk Correctional Facility have been treated and released.