Number of Tarrant County inmates testing positive for coronavirus grows by two-thirds
On Monday, officials with the Tarrant County Jail reported that 47 inmates had tested positive for COVID-19, which is caused by the novel coronavirus.
By Friday that number had grown to 78, nearly a 66% increase.
According to Tarrant County officials, four inmates have recovered from the disease, while 18 jail staff employees have tested positive. Four members of the jail staff also have recovered, Tarrant County officials reported.
All inmates and jail staff members who have tested positive for COVID-19 are in quarantine, are in good condition and are receiving treatment, a news release from the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office says.
In late April, eight inmates had tested positive. Four jailers had been infected and 50 were in self-quarantine. There were 102 quarantined inmates.
Tarrant County officials reported that on Friday the jail population was 3.385, up slightly from April 24 when the number of inmates in the jails had been reduced to 3,312.
Near the end of March, when Tarrant County’s effort to reduce the jail population was intensifying, the inmate count was 3,552, the lowest it had been in two years, according to Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department officials. No inmates or jail staff had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, in late March, according to JPS officials.
Jail personnel blocked entrance for inmates transported from other locations if they had temperatures or if they presented any evidence of having a coronavirus infection, outside programs inside the jail were either suspended or curtailed, and Tarrant County sheriff’’s deputies were instructed to use their discretion to avoid transporting people to jail who were not a threat to society, according to Lt. Jennifer Gabbert, Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.
At the beginning of the effort to reduce the jail population, criminal justice advocates warned that even one coronavirus positive case in the facility could be catastrophic.
“If somebody at the jail would get that virus, the disease would spread through that building like wildfire because you wouldn’t know how long they had it before you were finally able to catch it,” said Gary Smart, Tarrant County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association president. “It would spread like wildfire before you even knew it existed.”
Pamela Young, the lead organizer of United Fort Worth’s Criminal Action Team, has advocated at weekly Tarrant County commissioners meetings that no one who is arrested on a nonviolent charge should be booked into jail — especially inmates who are considered medically fragile and are more likely to have serious symptoms if they contract the coronavirus.
From April 8 to April 12, records analyzed by the Star-Telegram show that 349 people were booked into the county jail. On April 22, 252 of them were still jailed. And of those, at least 34 people were being held for nonviolent misdemeanors.
In a joint letter to Fort Worth and Tarrant County officials in late March, advocates described Tarrant County jails as squalid, without the opportunity for social distancing and inside an environment where healthcare is deficient.
“This is a recipe for the rapid spread of disease through correction officer contact and other personnel who could facilitate community spread throughout the jail,” said the letter, signed onto by groups such as United Fort Worth, The Tarrant County Coalition for Community Oversight and the immigrant advocacy group RAICES.
The groups also described the jails as a revolving door, with dozens of people going in and being released back into the community every day. If someone goes into jail for a misdemeanor drug possession for two or three days, then goes back home asymptomatic but infected, the potential is there for that person to infect both family and community members, said Young, the United Fort Worth spokeswoman.
“It’s imperative to make every effort to make sure that people who are not a threat to the community are released,” Young said. “We need those dollars and resources to mitigate the COVID-19 right now, not to prop up a system where the disease can spread. Not only do we have people in there like sitting ducks, we have staff who goes home every day. It’s a perfect storm for an outbreak that could be uncontrollable. And it’s inhumane for people who are not a threat to be locked up for no reason.”
This story includes information from Star-Telegram archives
This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 8:10 PM.
