By Nichole Manna
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
TARRANT COUNTY, Texas — Within four days in early April, almost 100 people were booked into the Tarrant County Jail and then later released.
They sat where others sat before them. They touched doors, handles and benches and then saw a magistrate judge, who decided to release them on bond.
Once released, they were back out in Tarrant County, likely shopping at grocery stores, getting gas or going to work.
In the meantime, jail employees, contractors who cook in the kitchen and officers who make the arrests were exposed to nearly every person who is eventually locked up.
This daily rotation of people in and out of the jail is one reason officials say they are working to contain the spread of coronavirus within its walls.
On Monday, the jail recorded 47 inmates who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. A week earlier, eight inmates had tested positive. Four jailers have been infected and 50 are in self-quarantine. There are 102 quarantined inmates.
“It’s just a chess game, keeping the hot spots away from a large part of the general population,” Sheriff Bill Waybourn said on April 21 — the last time he spoke publicly about containment strategies at the jail. He noted there were about 3,300 people in jail, which is about 400 fewer inmates than what the jail reported on April 1. Since March, the population has dropped by 17%, according to KERA News.
Waybourn was not at the Tarrant County commissioners meeting on Tuesday, when several residents called to say they’re concerned about how the jail is handling the spread of COVID-19.
Albert Roberts, a Fort Worth defense attorney who previously worked in the district attorney’s office, said the fight to keep COVID-19 infections down at the jail is one everyone should be worried about.
“It goes back to the principle that we have to care about everyone else’s health as much as our own,” he said. “I say that because we share a lot of public open spaces with people who have either gone into the jail or work there.”
Roberts said the blame for any increase of infections isn’t on one person, but the system as a whole. He recognizes that important steps have been taken to mitigate the spread, but that more can be done — such as widespread testing.
Tarrant County’s jail cases match those of Bexar County, where the population is also around 2 million. The county reported on Monday that 58 inmates tested positive and 1,153 were in quarantine. Nineteen jailers tested positive. Its population has shrank by 8% since March.
Who is left in the jail?
The Star-Telegram received data from a source about 35 inmates in the jail who tested positive for COVID-19. At least 19 of them were booked on nonviolent charges. Of those, one inmate had no local criminal history, and 13 had never been accused of a violent crime in Tarrant County, according to court records.
Those who tested positive are men ranging in age from 23 to 51, according to the information.
Two inmates are being treated at John Peter Smith hospital, Waybourn said. The others can leave the jail to seek treatment elsewhere if they’re able to make their cash bonds.
Pamela Young, the lead organizer of United Fort Worth’s Criminal Action Team, has advocated at weekly Tarrant County commissioners meetings that no one who is arrested on a nonviolent charge should be booked into jail — especially inmates who are considered medically fragile and are more likely to have serious symptoms if they contract the coronavirus.
From April 8 to April 12, records analyzed by the Star-Telegram show that 349 people were booked into the county jail. On April 22, 252 of them were still jailed. And of those, at least 34 people were being held for nonviolent misdemeanors.
In an email to Young, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office wrote that all releases are the result of a court proceeding, either a bond or sentence end date.
“The Sheriff’s Office has absolutely no control how Judges call their cases,” the spokeswoman, Jennifer Gabbert, wrote. “Due to that fact we have no knowledge of when any inmate will be called to court until the daily docket is presented to the Sheriff’s Office. The County Jail is a holding facility for inmates with pending cases. They do not make determination on immediate release without the completion of a case by the courts.”
Defense attorneys have said the issuance of a personal recognizance (non-payment) bonds by a magistrate judge have increased over the last couple of months, but that the district attorney’s office should waive “enhancement of crimes” when people are arrested for offenses such as criminal trespass. That means a punishment can be more severe, according to Roberts, the defense attorney.
Fort Worth attorney Daniel Collins said that more clients are getting the opportunity to leave jail without paying a bond.
“Most people in there with cash bonds are because they have a history or there’s some other factor that a magistrate judge has looked at,” he said.
Patrick Curran, a defense attorney who has several dozen clients being held at the jail, said he’s worried about their health.
“I want all of my clients released if they’re not in there for violent crimes,” he said on Friday. “I’m trying to get bond reductions for my clients.”
He said there have been no delays in bond hearings and said court appearances have been running smoothly despite the social distancing limitations.
What can the sheriff do?
Young argued that Waybourn can do better at acting as an advocate for the people in his jail, like Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown, who Young said has created a list of medically fragile inmates to send to the district attorney to see who might be eligible for compassionate release.
“Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn refuses to do even that,” she said.
On Monday, Dallas County reported that 141 inmates had tested positive for coronavirus. Another 801 are in quarantine. Twenty-one jailers have tested positive.
The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure prohibits Waybourn from releasing inmates himself.
Waybourn said last week that the district attorney’s office analyzes every misdemeanor arrest on a weekly basis and then they discuss possible release.
In a statement, District Attorney Sharen Wilson said she and others in the criminal justice system have been cognizant of the number of people in the jail.
“This is especially vital now that the Texas Department of Corrections has declined to accept any felons from county jails,” she said, adding that her office has received the cases of people charged and not yet convicted. Some of those resulted in dispositions.
“We also reviewed the cases of defendants who had received jail sentences. Those defendants who had non-violent charges, no violent history, and were near the end of their jail sentence were considered for early release.”
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