MORE INFO NEEDED ON JAILS’ VIRUS SURGE

Leaders of the San Diego County Sheriff ’s Department believe that some of The San Diego

Union-Tribune’s coverage of the department’s jails is unfair and ignores the good faith of department employees and the increased resources allocated to keep inmates safe and alive, both before and during the current coronavirus pandemic. Now the newspaper has posted a story showing a huge one-week increase of cases of the coronavirus among inmates and jail staff. There were 95 active infections last week. As of Monday, the number was up to 161 people — 125 inmates and 36 county workers. Yet the department didn’t respond to direct questions from the newspaper on the surge, treating them as standard public information requests. This doesn’t just punish the U-T. It punishes members of the public by keeping key information from them.

In a telephone interview with an editorial writer,

Undersheriff Michael R. Barnett said, “We are as transparent as we can be. ... Sometimes we don’t have the resources [to quickly answer questions].”

He said county jails were responding vigorously and appropriately to the new cases. Barnett downplayed comments union counselors that represents by — faulting David Garcias Sheriff hundreds — Bill president of Gore’s jail nurses virus of the and response. He suggested it was prompted by Gore’s interest in privatizing some jail operations.

But given that under Gore, the Sheriff ’s Department stopped announcing jail deaths last year, he has a credibility problem as well — and little ability to make claims of running a transparent agency.