SAN ANTONIO – The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which is battling the rise of COVID-19 in prisons across the state, will continue not taking in new offenders, the executive director told Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff in a letter sent on Thursday.
On April 13, the TDCJ decided to suspend intake of offenders who were set to be transferred to state prisons and treatment facilities.
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The move sparked Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff to send the department a letter, stating his concern about the policy. The Bexar County Jail, which is dealing with its own COVID-19 spread, is housing 189 inmates who were supposed to be transferred to state prisons and treatment facilities.
Bryan Collier, the department’s executive director, told Wolff the additional burden put on the local jail due to the suspension is not something he takes lightly.
Collier said the decision had to be made, however, as the number of confirmed cases involving offenders and staff continues to grow.
“I believe the combinations of measures currently being implemented will enable the TDCJ to resume intake of offenders having no symptoms of COVID-19, but that decision is pending additional information regarding the trends discussed above,” Collier wrote, referencing newly implemented policies suggested by the Centers for Disease Control.
The move leaves the jail with more inmates in a time when the sheriff’s office is trying to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. So far, 34 inmates have been infected along with 29 deputies.
Prisons have not fared much better, however. More than 500 positive COVID-19 tests have been confirmed at facilities across the state.
On Thursday, the department announced that Muslim Chaplain Akbar Shabazz died at Methodist Hospital in The Woodlands possibly due to COVID-19 complications. Shabazz helped coordinate classes, prayer services and led the coordination of Ramadan services for Muslim inmates.
Five inmates have died in Texas prisons as well, and only 47 have recovered so far, according to the department.
COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, stands for coronavirus disease 2019. The disease first appeared in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China, but spread around the world in early 2020, causing the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March. The first case confirmed in the U.S. was in mid-January and the first case confirmed in San Antonio was in mid-February.
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