In less than a month, COVID-19 spikes at Mecklenburg Jail to 43 cases
Mecklenburg County Detention Center — North Carolina’s largest jail — currently has 43 inmates who have tested positive for COVID-19, the county sheriff’s office said Friday afternoon in a press release.
The Mecklenburg County Jail reported its first two cases of coronavirus at the central facility in uptown Charlotte on June 11, the Observer previously reported. The juvenile facility has no positive cases, said Dejah Gilliam, spokeswoman for the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office.
As of June 30, Gilliam said, there were no inmates in custody with a confirmed case of coronavirus aside from four people who had tested positive and were later released from the detention center.
“I care deeply for the residents housed in our detention center and the personnel and service providers that work in this high risk environment. Since the start of this pandemic we have worked hard and aggressively in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic,” Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden said in the press release Friday.
According to Gilliam, 156 people at the jail are in isolation while 136 are being quarantined. The jail has not experienced any coronavirus-related hospitalizations or deaths, the press release stated.
Since March, there have been nine detention officers who have tested positive for the virus, according to officials.
“Decarcerate Mecklenburg” — a local advocacy group consisting of lawyers, public defenders, members of the ACLU and other advocates — has warned of the potential spread of coronavirus at the jail since April.
The group has protested and argued for the release of people who cannot afford bond, have six months or less to serve, are pregnant or are over 50. The group has also demanded that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police give out citations for misdemeanor crimes instead of arresting people and putting them in jail.
Challenges of containing the virus in a jail
Since March, the Mecklenburg County Jail has said that the facility has strict screening protocols to prevent any possible introduction of coronavirus into the jail population. On Friday, the press release said that the detention center places all new people into quarantine or isolation housing for 14 days while monitoring symptoms.
However, local activists have argued for months that the jail is still a congregate living facility and that social distancing is impossible given the density of people and shared communal spaces and showers. Activists have also argued that, while the county jail has decreased the population to around 1,300 people, the jail still experiences “churn”: new people who enter but stay for only a short time.
On Friday, the sheriff’s office said in the press release that the detention center sees around 45 new people every day, which “further compounds the risk of exposure and spread of the virus.”
The jail has increased the number of inmates tested for coronavirus as cases in North Carolina have increased, the press release said.
“Considering new research showing that many people carrying the coronavirus experience few or no symptoms, I think it’s prudent that we continue to expand the testing of our resident population as a proactive approach in our response to this pandemic,” McFadden said in the release.
The press release also acknowledged that people who transfer from other jails with different “standard(s) of care” are an additional challenge. The first case of coronavirus at the jail was from someone who transferred from a facility outside of North Carolina, the press release stated.
