*** URGENT CALL TO ACTION***
**COVID-19 OUTBREAK IN DENTON COUNTY JAIL**
*INMATES ARE BEGGING FOR HELP.*
State numbers released yesterday reveal that there are now 37 ACTIVE CASES among inmates in the facility. Additionally, 7 members of the jail’s staff have also tested positive. For the sake of perspective, the number of active Denton County jail inmate infections now trails Dallas County by only 12 cases!
A screen shot of state data is available in the images below, but you can pull it up on their site here:
https://www.tcjs.state.tx.us/…/20…/07/TCJS_COVID_Report.pdf…
Even more disturbing is the fact that the county health department’s data still only reflects 15 cases. A screen shot of county data is available in the images below, but you can pull it up on their site here:
https://gis-covid19-dentoncounty.hub.arcgis.com/…/covid-19c…
So how did we get here?
On July 6, 2020, the Denton Record Chronicle reported 13 women had tested positive for Covid-19 in the Denton County Jail under the charge of Sheriff Murphree. In statements made to the DRC, Murphree confirmed that these 13 Covid-19 positive women were housed together with four other yet to be infected women in a 48 capacity “quarantine pod.” All this, despite the fact that Murphree’s own safety protocols, as outlined on the county website and by himself during a May 13th video interview with Cross Timbers Gazette Editor Bob Weir, require that:
“If an individual, if we suspected that they had Covid, they would go to an individual medical cell and be monitored by medical personnel and not be put into a large pod or into general population.”
On July 12, 2020, I interviewed a woman days after her release from the jail who revealed a disturbing account of how staff, under Murphree’s direction, failed to protect her and other inmates from a Covid-19 outbreak rapidly spreading throughout the facility. On July 21, 2020, I conducted another series of video interviews with women still being held together in the same “mass quarantine pod” described in the DRC. As of the 21st, all of these 14 women but one had tested positive. Though, this outlier felt ill and was confident that she too had become infected.
Every single woman I spoke to reported they had been denied access to adequate medical treatment. They reported how staff refused to come into their pod and as a result, trash has piled up. They don’t have access to adequate cleaning supplies. Their masks are so old, they have holes in them large enough to stick fingers through. They are being held in a formerly closed unit with toilets that won’t flush and are full of raw sewage. Water leaks down the walls and black mold grows all around them. (All of the aforementioned is evidenced in photos attached.) Many women claim they should have already been released. Most have been denied access to attorneys or Parole review because staff will not come into the pod or facilitate their onsite video conferences due to fear of contact.
***WE NEED TO PROTEST IN MASS AT THE JAIL IMMEDIATELY***
What do we want:
An IMMEDIATE release of ALL persons in the jail awaiting trial for non-violent offenses.
An IMMEDIATE release of ALL persons serving sentences in the jail for non-violent offences with less than 6 months remaining on their sentence.
An IMMEDIATE release of all persons in high-risk categories, as identified by the CDC serving sentences in the jail for non-violent offences.
IMMEDIATE and sustained treatment in isolated medical units for all persons actively infected including daily monitoring of vitals and symptom treatment.
IMMEDIATE access to attorneys and parole officers via onsite video conferences.
***SPREAD THIS POST LIKE A WILDFIRE***
Event:
Thank you for putting this out there!