Harris County inmate dies from COVID-19

A Harris County jail inmate diagnosed with COVID-19 died Wednesday, the first such death since the disease surfaced in the jail.

The man was between the ages of 50 and 60 years old, and had a variety of underlying heath issues, according to Jason Spencer, a spokesman with the sheriff ’s office.

Spencer declined to identify the man, citing advice from department and county lawyers related to concerns over medical privacy laws.

He had been booked into the jail on a felony charge months ago, Spencer said, and diagnosed at a local hospital where he had been taken for treatment for non-COVID-19-related symptoms.

“We take our duty of ensuring the health and safety of all our inmates seriously,” Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. “And we are saddened by this loss of life. He and his loved ones have our sincere sympathy.”

The death comes as jails and prisons across the United States are trying to prevent the spread of the coronavirus among their inmate populations. For months, public health experts have warned that the close confines of correctional facilities could lead to widespread outbreaks that could then filter back out into the community.

Those concerns led Gonzalez

and Judge Lina Hidalgo to warn about the need to reduce the number of inmates at the jail, which houses 7,400 inmates and is the second largest county jail in the United States. Opponents argued a mass release of inmates would endanger public safety.

Amid that dispute, the number of inmates to test positive for the illness has risen to 601, according to the sheriff ’s office. Of those, 249 are now in recovery, and 92 did not experience any symptoms. Fourteen inmates are currently hospitalized.

More than 2,700 inmates are now in observational quarantine, Spencer said.

The virus has also spread to hundreds of people who work at the sheriff’s office, including more than 200 detention officers.

According to a department news release, more than 400 deputies, detention officers and support staff are in quarantine as a precaution. A dozen employees are hospitalized.

“It’s unacceptable turf battles and process are turning our jail into the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in Harris County,”

Hidalgo said Wednesday in a statement. “Today, one in ten people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in our county can trace their case directly back to our jail, including over 200 Sheriff’s Deputies. Sadly, this was not only predictable, but preventable.”

Across the state, some 1,100 inmates have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to information from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. Another 4,838 inmates are in observational quarantine.

Advocates for jail inmates said the news was shocking and frustrating.

“We’ve been dreading this news,” said Krish Gundu, of the Texas Jail Project. “It’s hard to process, because we have all been saying this is going to happen, that we need to do something. It’s like watching a train wreck.”

The Houston medical community and the Sheriff have been warning for weeks about the impending catastrophe inside the Harris County jail — a public health nightmare that will spread across the Houston area,” said Alec Karakatsanis, of Civil Rights Corps, who led two challenges against Harris County’s bail system. “This death was preventable and tragic. We will watch a lot more people die unless Kim Ogg and the district judges dramatically reduce the jail population. It’s in their hands.”

State Sen. John Whitmire, DHouston, said a review of the inmate’s health record was warranted.

“These are extraordinary times,” he said. “I strongly feel no one should be confined (in jail) who doesn’t pose a public safety threat.”