Over a dozen infected in high-security unit of jail

Outbreak accounts for a spike in COVID-19 cases in single unit since start of July

SAN JOSl >> A single unit in the Santa Clara County Main Jail has seen more than a dozen COVID-19 infections over the past two weeks, prompting inmate families and advocates to hound authorities to stem an outbreak that already has delayed a murder trial because its defendants are either sick or quarantined.

The high-security 5B module in the North San Jose facility has recorded 13 cases in July, according to data from the Sheriff’s Office, which operates the county jails. But there were indications Thursday that total might rise after more test results come back.

Almost by itself, the unit has paced the increase of 15 cases recorded in the jail system from July 1 to Tuesday. Since mid-June, the county jails — which include the Elmwood Correctional Complex in Milpitas — have averaged a new case a day. To date, 53 cases have been reported at the jails, with almost 90% of them surfacing since late May.

“They don’t see themselves getting better in there,” said Amanda Jimenez, whose brother Marcos is being held in 5B and tested positive for the virus. Through his family, Marcos Jimenez relayed a conversation between him and a jail doctor who suspected that Jimenez likely contracted COVID-19 from a staff member. At the beginning of the month, when the first two cases in the unit were confirmed, Amanda Jimenez said that she was told several inmates were sick and showing symptoms at the time.

“‘Some inmates look like they’re dead,’ ” Amanda Jimenez recalls her brother telling her.

The Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the majority of new cases in 5B were identified after a round of testing instituted following the first positive test, and that infected inmates have been

rehoused in the jail infirmary or have been isolated in a quarantine unit.

According to a family-relayed account by infected 5B inmate Raul Covarrubias, once one inmate got sick, “Everyone started dropping like flies.”

Marcos Jimenez gave a similar description, saying that during the last two days of Junem “Everyone started getting really sick” and became virtually bedridden because of a lack of energy.

The Sheriff’s Office said in the wake of the outbreak, inmates in the unit are being given time out of their cells in groups of four, quarantined inmates are being tested three times before being cleared and employees who work on the fifth floor are being offered priority COVID-19 testing.

Inmates and their families and the Sheriff’s Office continue to spar over whether jail employees, including correctional deputies, are consistently enforcing mask wearing and wearing masks themselves. Numerous inmate accounts given to this news organization, and some staff members speaking on the condition of anonymity, have said it remains a common sight to see a deputy interacting with inmates unmasked.

The Sheriff’s Office said its protocol with masks has been made clear to people who work in the jails.

“We have issued a directive to staff to wear a mask any time they interact with the public, are at risk of exposure or at risk of ex posing others ,” the agency said in its statement.

At a July 10 meeting with jail administrators, inmate families and South Bay civil-rights group Silicon Valley De-Bug gave the Sheriff’s Office a list of recommendations to improve inmate conditions and their access to communication with loved ones and their attorneys.

Among the requests is allowing public health officials to make unannounced inspections at the jails and to release body camera video from deputies working in 5B in the week before the outbreak to help assess whether mask wearing and social distancing protocols are being followed.

Inmates continue to complain to their families — they say phone calls have been restricted during the 5B quarantine and outbreak — about not being allowed to bathe regularly and not getting prompt medical care.

Amanda Jimenez said the situation with her brother, who has been in jail for over a year on a charge of conspiracy to commit attempted murder, and nearby inmates is worsened by a virus-fueled backlog in court dates that have kept defendants waiting up to 60 extra days between hearings.

The outbreak occurred as the Sheriff’s Office fended off a writ of habeas corpus petition filed by the Public Defender’s Office alleging the jails were violating an emergency $0 bail order — instituted first by the state high court and then extended by the local Superior Court until September — by excessively holding people arrested on suspicion of misdemeanors and low-level felonies.

Initially, some people who were booked for alleged crimes were being taken to jail and temporarily housed before they were released, which the Public Defender’s Office argued defeated the purpose of the order, which is to reduce the number of low-level arrestees going in and out of the jails amid the pandemic.

The Sheriff’s Office had argued that some of the delays were due to administrative functions that include checking for whether a person has any active warrants or thinner staffing during overnight hours.

This week, Judge Peter H. Kirwan dismissed the writ petition largely on the grounds that the plaintiff, who had been held for nearly 10 hours before being released, was already out of jail. But Carlie Ware, who argued on behalf of the public defender, contends that the $0 bail order has created a new category of arrestee whose constitutional rights afford him a swift release rather than “a black hole of administrative processing.”

Ware did find some relief in the fact that after the writ was filed, the Sheriff’s Office ceased the practice of transporting and housing $0 bail arrestees, especially since the jail intake process entails measures like strip-searching and having to surrender property.

In a statement, Sheriff Laurie Smith called Kirwan’s decision “a fair ruling” and alluded to the fact that through a series of amnesty measures for expiring sentences and nonviolent offenders exercised across the state, the jail population is now below 2,100, about a 34% decrease from early March.

“We will continue to adhere to the zero bail guidelines so that people eligible for release are not placed into housing units,” she said. “Our jail population is now extremely low, which provides us the latitude to better mitigate the risks of COVID-19 while we maintain safety for the entire public.”