Transcript
TDCJ is Spreading Covid-19 Intentionally and/or Negligently by Steven Kurr Baughman [ID] On January 21, 2020, the identification of the Corona virus (covid-19) hit the world stage as a respiratory infection with cold like symptoms that was highly contagious and deadly; and the infection was spreading worldwide as rapidly as a wildfire in a dry pine forest; leaving people around the globe sick and dying. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the University of Texas Medical Branch's correctional managed health care (UTMB) were well aware of the emerging pandemic, but failed and/or refused to promulgate policies to prevent the spread of Covid-19 throughout the Texas prison system, which houses approximately 150,000 prisoners, in 108 prisons accross the state. TDCJ/UTMB knew or should have known that the introduction of Covid-19 into a prison would rapidly spread throughout the prison; where men and women, guards and those being guarded live and work in close proximity to each other, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. There is no such thing as social distancing in prison where 2 men/women live in a 6x9 cell with as many as 27 cells to a row and as many as 4 rows of cells stacked on top of each other in a cellblock, or in dormitories which hold 30-80, 6x9 cubicles with 4' privacy particians between each cubicle, in which prisoners are housed and share a common dayroom (for watching T.V.) and common restrooms. Once a prison became infected the prison was not quarantined and inter-facility transfers occurred from prisons whose population had been infected to prisons which had no suspected infection and from UTMB Hospital Galveston where prisoners with serious infections were sent back to units which had no reported infection. The prisoners being transfered from a prison/unit that had confirmed cases of Covid-19 were not quarantined at the receiving unit, but were instead placed directly into general population. Furthermore, where guards had been infected they were given sick-leave and prisons became short staffed at infected units; causing guards from non-infected units to be forced to work overtime at the nearby infected units and then return to the non-infected units without going through any quarantine period. In fact inmates and guards came from Beto 1 Unit and Telford Unit as well as Hospital Galveston to the Powledge Unit without being quarantined; despite Beto 1, Telford, and Hospital Galveston being among the most heavily infected units and among the first to report inmate deaths from Covid-19. As late as March 24, 2020, TDCJ/UTMB were issuing disciplinary case to prisoners for refusing medical appointments at Beto 1, Estelle, and Hospital Galveston despite the inmates' fears of being exposed to Covid-19. And on March 20, 2020 the prisoners were told to evacuate the chow hall at 3:45 p.m. and the Powledge Unit went under temporary lockdown in order to transfer an inmate suspected of having Covid-19 from Beto 1 into the infirmary of the Powledge Unit. On March 23, 2020 second case from Beto 1 sent to the Powledge Unit infirmary and on April 14, 2020 an inmate was transferred from Hospital Galveston to the Powledge Unit and placed into 15 dorm 6 bunk (general population) without going through quarantine. Between inter-unit-transfers, suspected positive cases being transferred to any unit with a open infirmary bed and guards doing overtime at infected units and returning to non-infected units without going through quarantine TDCJ has placed the entire TDCJ prison population at risk while spreading Covid-19 from one prison unit to another, and on May 5, 2020 the Powledge Unit's 1 block and 4 block went on lockdown, due to a female guard suspected of being infected with Covid-19 and potentially exposing fellow guards, and the unit's inmates to infection, after she had worked over-time at the Telford Unit in New Boston, Texas; where the first inmate died of Covid-19 in Texas. As of June 5, 2020, 42 prisoners and 36 guards have died of Covid-19; over 6,000 have been confirmed as being infected, over 4,000 are suspected as being infected and a little over 1,000 have reportidly recovered from infection. "But" the numbers will rise as the Governor's Task Force begins testing of every prisoner in the Texas Prison System. The fact is Texas intentionally and/or negligently spread the virus through continued transfer of prisoners from one prison to another without using quarantine procedures and through having guards perform overtime at infected facilities and returning to non-infected facilities without being quarantined.
