Study: 80% of the people who died of COVID-19 in Texas county jails had not been convicted
Mark Dunphy
Signs posted in the clinic amid the COVID-19 pandemic at the Harris County Jail in Houston on Tuesday, May 12, 2020.
Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
Eighty percent of the people who died of COVID-19 in Texas county jails were pretrial and had not been convicted of a crime, according to a new study.
A report by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin found that at least 231 inmates and staff members have died of the virus in Texas prisons and jails, more than any other state's correctional facilities.
Texas inmates and staff tested positive for COVID-19 at a rate 490 percent higher than the state's general population.
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"COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on prisons and jails across the country, and especially in Texas," said Michele Deitch, the study's lead author. Deitch said the data shows "the urgency of taking steps to reduce the risks of additional COVID deaths in Texas prisons and jails."
Fifty-eight percent of the inmates who died of COVID-19 in the state's prisons were eligible for parole. Nine of them had been approved for parole but died before their release.
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Some Texas prisons have been particularly hard hit by the virus. Almost 6 percent of the incarcerated people at Duncan Unit, an East Texas prison that houses the elderly, have died of COVID-19.
The report did not include federal prisons or Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities.
At the Bexar County jail, inmate Clifford Childs and detention deputy Timothy De La Fuente died after contracting COVID-19.
At the Dominguez Unit, a state jail southwest of San Antonio, 57 employees and 406 inmates have tested positive for the virus since the onset of the pandemic.
Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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