Texas prisons are the highest in the nation for Covid-19 deaths.
Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth. Nearly three out of five inmates in Texas jails and prisons who died of the virus were eligible for parole at the time, researchers found.
Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth. Nearly three out of five inmates in Texas jails and prisons who died of the virus were eligible for parole at the time, researchers found.Credit…Larry W Smith/EPA, via Shutterstock
Inmates in Texas prisons and jails have tested positive and have died at substantially higher rates than the national average for prisons, and more than half of those who died were eligible for parole at the time, a University of Texas at Austin study found.
At least 187 Texas inmates and guards have died, and more than 41,000 have been infected by the coronavirus, according to a New York Times database. By contrast, the federal prison system, which is roughly comparable in size, has had 143 deaths and about 24,000 infections.
Of the nation’s 10 largest prison systems, only Florida reported a higher infection rate per 10,000 inmates than Texas, the largest system in the country, and Michigan and Ohio had higher death rates, as of Oct. 4, according to the study. The Texas system has also had by far the most deaths of employees.
One Texas prison — the Rufus H. Duncan Geriatric Facility near Diboll — has had nearly 6 percent of its inmates die of Covid-19, the report said. That prison has reported at least 339 infections.
The report, published this month by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, found that Texas has made much less progress in reducing coronavirus deaths in prison than have Michigan, Ohio and New Jersey, which all had high death tolls early in the pandemic.
Jeremy Desel, a spokesman for the prison system, said the report failed to properly credit the state for performing universal prison testing, a rarity among correctional systems.
“Most inmates have little to no symptoms and recover,” he said, “but tragically, some have succumbed to Covid-19.” Mr. Desel said most of those who died “were elderly and had numerous pre-existing conditions.”
— Timothy Williams The New York Times