SAUGUS : Jail’s Steps to Control Meningitis Explained

County officials said Monday that they quarantined and gave antibiotics to more than 2,000 inmates at a jail in Saugus over the weekend because two inmate trusties were stricken with meningitis, not because another inmate had died of the disease.

The death last Thursday of Alexander Betancourt, 45, at the South Facility of the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho had little to do with the massive response at the jail’s nearby ranch facility, because Betancourt had been fairly isolated and all those with whom he had come in contact had been treated with preventive measures, officials said Monday. Two other inmates were found to have meningitis in January, and similar preventive measures were taken.

Trusties are given much freedom to move around the complex, doing odd jobs and repairs. So the fact that the disease was diagnosed in two unidentified trusties Saturday prompted officials to embark on what several described as an “extraordinary” response.