MIAMI HERALD – ‘I almost died in there’ (3/17/21)

” … In the year since COVID struck, the Broward jail system has had 378 detainees and 323 staffers test positive.

The Miami-Dade Department of Corrections has had more cases and was less forthcoming with data. After numerous requests for information over more than a week, spokesman Juan Diasgranados said the jail would not provide the cumulative number of positive tests for detainees or staff, even though the facility is responsible for providing the healthcare of those it detains. Diasgranados would say only that the current tally of active cases is 30 detainees and 64 staff. Diasgranados said “less than five” detainees have died of COVID, but would not provide a specific count.

The Herald obtained more specific information from a different agency: Jackson Health System. The county’s public hospital network, serving the poor and the incarcerated, among others, said Miami-Dade jails have had 1,864 detainees and 846 staffers test positive since the virus manifested itself. Jackson placed the death count at three.

Diasgranados said high case counts in the early stage of the virus were due to a “proactive” approach to testing asymptomatic detainees. Broward, in contrast, has apparently not focused testing on detainees without symptoms ...

… Complaints prompted a class-action lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has resulted in a settlement not quite finalized because of the multi-phased procedure for completing such litigation. Provisions, some of them already implemented, include expanded COVID testing, rules barring COVID-negative detainees from being housed with positive detainees, and giving medically vulnerable detainees twice-daily temperature checks … “

Background – “ACLU v. BSO” (6/5/20)