Texas must do more to save prisoners
Parole officials should thin the population by releasing vulnerable eligible inmates.
More than 190 people have died in Texas prisons from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, the most in the country on sheer numbers and the third highest death rate even when adjusting for the size of the prison system, which is America’s largest.
The biggest tragedy isn’t that people are dying in Texas prisons. After all, the pandemic has reached every corner of America and claimed more than 250,000 lives. The travesty is that many of those deaths were preventable and that the state’s refusal to act made them unavoidable.
Now that the virus is surging again in Texas, and all over the country, it’s time for state officials to recommit to bolder action to save lives.
According to a recent analysis by the University of Texas’ Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, the virus has caused 27 staff deaths and 190 reported prison deaths in the state from March through October. Researchers note the number is likely higher.
The study found that prisoners test positive for the virus and die from COVID at higher rates when compared to the overall Texas population, the national average, and the national prison average. For example, COVID deaths per 10,000 people are 5.7 in the overall Texas population, 10 in U.S. prisons and 13.6 in Texas prisons.
Almost 26,000 inmates and more than 6,000 employees have tested positive for COVID-19, according to data from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which runs Texas prisons.
Officials point out that one reason Texas prisons have reported so many cases is because the state has led the way in testing in the nation, with more than 70,000 employee and 225,000 inmate tests carried out.
“This is far more than any other correctional system in the country and where there is more testing there will be more cases discovered,” Jeremy Desel, TDCJ director of communications, said in a statement.
But testing is only one piece of the puzzle: Good work on testing doesn’t explain or mitigate the higher numbers of deaths in Texas jails and prisons, which is the most important and alarming metric. And while the department has been wise to insist on masks, increased distancing and better sanitation in the prisons, it’s also maintained a tragic intransigence in the face of a lawsuit filed by inmates at the Wallace Pack Unit, which houses geriatric and medically vulnerable prisoners.
The prison, located about 70 miles northwest of Houston, has had 18 deaths between July and April, according to Texas Justice Initiative data. In September, a federal judge found that officials acted with deliberate indifference toward the inmates’ medical needs and disregarded obvious health risks. The judge’s ruling was stayed pending appeal.
What’s happened at the Pack Unit makes clear the first thing the state must do is reduce the number of people it has behind bars, and thankfully there are many ways of doing that that will not endanger the public. About 80 percent of the people who died in Texas prisons from COVID were over the age of
55, professor Michele Deitch, who led the UT study, told the editorial board. Focusing on releasing as many of these prisoners as possible will keep people from dying.
“The No. 1 recommendation of every expert at the start of the pandemic was you have to reduce your population, and that’s because you can’t socially distance inside prisons and jails, they’re just too densely populated,” Deitch said. “The older prisoners are past their crimeprone years, so it’s not a public safety risk to be targeting that population.”
There are lessons to be learned from Harris County, where Sheriff Ed Gonzalez began sounding the alarm ahead of most officials in Texas and urged police to be choosier about whom they arrested. Those early steps, even as a bigger early release plan was blocked by Gov. Greg Abbott, likely gave the jail breathing room to keep the virus spread from going out of control.
State officials should follow Gonzalez’s lead and work to thin the prison population and double-down on other safety measures. They can start with the safest choices.
Among those who died from COVID, 73 percent were not serving a life sentence. Among those, nearly half had served over 50 percent of their sentence when they died. In most cases, people in custody are eligible for parole after serving a quarter of their sentence. Even those convicted of the most serious crimes are eligible after serving half.
That doesn’t mean all of them should have been granted parole. Those decisions should still be made on a case-by-case basis by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. But in deciding, officials must give substantial weight to danger posed by the pandemic to vulnerable prisoners.
The process itself must also speed up. Nine people have died from COVID after they were approved for release on parole. There is often a lag time as prisoners must meet a pre-release condition, such as taking a substance abuse or anger management program.
While officials said these programs have been adapted over COVID-19 concerns, substituting inperson efforts with remote or onpaper classes, if these people are already set for release, why can’t these programs be completed once they’re outside?
Other states are making changes. Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland signed an executive order last week to allow officials to move faster on parole and home-detention decisions, based on an inmate’s age and remainder of his or her sentence. About 1,200 people are expected to be eligible for early release.
Despite the rising tide of infections rolling through Texas, Abbott has opposed additional lockdowns, instead stressing the importance of personal responsibility. In prison, that responsibility falls on the state, which has a moral and constitutional obligation to keep those in its custody safe.
The state is shirking its duty and people are dying.