By Katie Hall
Austin American-Statesman
TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — In the wake of a recent COVID-19 outbreak at the Travis County jail, some Austin attorneys have raised concerns about the jail’s quarantine conditions and are calling for more widespread testing of inmates.
An inmate who works in the Travis County Correctional Complex’s kitchen tested positive Saturday for the coronavirus, which led officials to shut down the kitchen and clean it, said sheriff’s office spokeswoman Kristen Dark. Since then, an emergency menu of only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches has been in place for all inmates, and an expanded emergency menu will be implemented Wednesday.
“I am astounded at the way the sheriff treats my clients,” said attorney Deniz Kadirhan, adding that she represents an inmate with COVID-19 who has had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner over the weekend while he was in quarantine. “The food is worse than normal.”
Out of the 1,867 inmates currently in the Del Valle complex and the downtown Austin jail, 69 have tested positive for the virus and an additional 32 are in quarantine.
In just the past two weeks, 25 Travis County jail guards have tested positive for the virus.
“The judges need to be letting these people (who are jailed) out on bond,” Kadirhan said. “That’s what we’ve been telling them for since March. ... They should be releasing people as soon as they can, so that we’re not making the situation even worse.”
Sick inmates need more monitoring than temperature checks and access to ibuprofen, and they need better access to their attorneys, said Kadirhan, who is on the board of directors for the Austin Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.
Dark said that, after inmates’ cells are professionally sanitized, inmates who have the coronavirus are given supplies to clean their cells themselves to prevent maintenance staff from being infected. Kadirhan said her client found the cell he entered to be “filthy” and was disheartened to find that he had to clean it himself.
Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez said the jails’ temporary measures, such as the emergency menu, are an effort to prevent further spread in the jail.
“The health and safety of our inmate population is our highest priority at both of our jail facilities,” Hernandez said. “Health issues in the Travis County community are reflected in our jail community as well. As much as we hoped we could prevent COVID from ever touching our inmate general population, we couldn’t ever make our jail impenetrable to the virus. I’m very proud of the work our employees are doing every day to do battle against it. We have been so fortunate not to have experienced the devastation other jails and prisons across Texas have endured.”
Austin attorney George Lobb said the Travis County jails need to test more inmates more frequently. Currently, inmates living in quarantined units are tested every seven days or if they have symptoms, which is based on recommendations from Austin Public Health and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.
Austin Public Health recommended all court staff and judges get vaccinated. They did not recommend inmates get vaccinated.
“Dr. Mark Escott forgot that inmates can’t work from home,” said Lobb. “Escott wants to vaccinate those with little exposure and ignore those with the greatest exposure to the SARS-Cov-2 virus.”
Brandon Wood, executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, said that Travis County has “done a very good job at handling any positive COVID-19 inmates and staff members.”
” Travis County has most definitely maintained a watchful eye on the situation,” Wood said. “They’ve put forward several different proposals in regards to quarantining inmates whenever they have suspected cases or confirmed cases and arranging different housing areas to accommodate them. They have been very upfront and kept us in the loop.”
___
(c)2021 Austin American-Statesman, Texas