COVID-19 CASES SOAR IN COUNTY JAILS

Sheriff ’s Department reports infections up 70% in past week

The novel coronavirus is surging through San Diego County jails, with active infections jumping almost 70 percent in the past week, according to the latest numbers released by the Sheriff ’s Department.

At least 161 people — 125 inmates and 36 county workers — are now sick with COVID-19, the department website reported late Monday. One week earlier the web page showed 95 active infections.

All told, 439 people working or detained in the county’s seven-jail system have been infected with COVID-19 since March, according to the sheriff ’s department’s website. That’s a 70 percent increase since last month.

One employee, a counselor at the L as Colinas women’s jail, died in late October as a result of COVID-19.

Jail workers say the virus i s spreading out of control.

“Numbers are growing by the day,” said one sheriff ’s employee who did not want to be identif ied because he is not authorized to speak to repor ters. “We don’t even know what modules are quarantined anymore.”

The Sheriff ’s Depar tment did not respond to questions about the latest coronavirus numbers, saying i nstead it i ntends to process the questions as a request for public documents.

Jail off icials have maintained for months that they are doing the best they can to reduce the spread of the virus by testing i nmates and providing protective gear and cleaning supplies to employees and inmates.

“Our Medical Ser vices Division is working closely with the Depar tment of

Public Health concerning our ongoing COVID-19 response and clinical trends in suppor t of the contact investigations,” the department said in a news release late last month.

“The San Diego County Sheriff ’s Depar tment is committed to the safety, security, health and well-being of people in our custody,” the statement said.

The same announcement noted that, as of Nov. 20, three inmates had been hospitalized for COVID-19 and that outbreaks were identif ied at three of the county’s seven jails.

“Based on these current COVID-19 impacts, the Detention Ser vices Bureau has returned to a more restrictive environment,” the announcement said.

Among other things, inperson visits have been cur tailed due to the surging caseload.

The spike in coronavirus cases comes amid a spate of recent inmate deaths, although the depar tment said none of the fatalities were related to COVID-19. The San Diego Union-Tribune conf irmed through a public records request that at least f ive inmates have

died since October.

The family of Mark Armendo, an inmate who died in August, sued the county last month. His relatives claim he died from COVID-19 after the Sheriff ’s Dpar tment neglected to provide him with appropriate medical care.

The Sheriff ’s Depar tment has said they don’t believe he contracted the virus in jail. The depar tment also did not list Armendo’s case as an in-custody death, saying he died after the depar tment had off icially released him from custody while he was in the hospital.

David Garcias, president of the union that represents hundreds of jail nurses and counselors, said Sheriff Bill Gore needs to do a better job confronting the public health threat inside his detention facilities.

“The dramatic increase in the past week of COVID cases in San Diego County jails i s putting lives and public health at risk,” he said. “San Diego jails have some of the worst COVID outbreaks statewide, and Sheriff Gore’s response is woefully inadequate.”

Garcias, who heads the

local off ice of the Ser vice Employees International Union, said Gore should hire more nurses, limit movement among inmates and provide more protective equipment. He also said the sheriff should release more information about the infections.

“Sheriff Gore must start to be transparent about COVID exposure with the employees and the community members we ser ve,” Garcias said.

“Too many medical staff are forced without notice to work l ast-minute 12-hour shifts, seven days in a row,” he said.

The Union-Tribune repor ted Nov. 16 that an outbreak at the county’s most populated jail, the George Bailey Detention Facility in Otay Mesa, forced jail off icials to relocate dozens of inmates to alternate lockups.

The Nov. 20 press release said that an inmate who had been moved from George Bailey to the Vista Detention Facility tested positive af ter the transfer and infected at least eight other people at the Nor th County jail.

Deputies and others

said they suspected the virus would spread as soon as they l earned i nmates testing positive for the disease were relocated to other jails.

“(We) knew it was going to happen when they transferred all of those (COVID-19-positive) inmates all over the county,” said the jail employee who was not authorized to speak publicly.

“Supplies we have; info, never enough,” he added. “People are tired.”

The Sheriff ’s Depar tment has persistently declined to disclose details of the coronavirus cases, either to employees or to the public.

Specif ically the depar tment has repeatedly declined to provide a breakdown of positive tests by facility.

Off icials also would not say how many of the 125 active cases involved inmates who tested positive at intake and how many were infected while already in custody.

The depar tment also declined to specify how many i nmates had been hospitalized due to the virus or whether any i nmates got sick after contact with employees who tested positive.

Exper ts say there is a clear connection between COVID-19 outbreaks in jails and prisons and i n their surrounding communities because employees come and go every day — exposing themselves and others to the virus.

It is critical that jail commanders release information about the disease to public health off icials and to the public, the exper ts say.

“Without these data, it makes it much harder to understand how best to inter vene and to determine just how at risk both the community and people who are incarcerated might be,” said Kathryn Nowotny, a University of Miami researcher and co-founder of the COVID Prison Project, which tracks the disease in jails and prisons.

The jail systems in Los Angeles and Orange counties are among those who repor t coronavirus cases by facility.