At least six of North Carolina’s largest counties are ordering the release of jail detainees as a preventive measure against COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus.
Buncombe, Durham, Forsyth, Guilford, Mecklenburg and Wake counties have all confirmed that they are releasing detainees as a means to lower jail populations. The fewer people who are in the jails, the easier it will be to enforce preventive measures — such as medically screening staff and those arrested — to keep COVID-19 out of the facilities.
If the virus gets into a jail, lower populations will mean the illness will be easier to contain and fewer people who will be exposed, which would protect both the people in jail and communities at large.
When discussing the releases, Aaron Sarver, public information officer for the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, stressed the difference between jail and prison.
The people being released from the Buncombe County Detention Center are all pretrial, Sarver said, meaning they have not been convicted of a crime.
In some cases, people convicted of low-level misdemeanors and are serving time in the jails could also be released. Prisons, by and large, hold people who have been convicted of felonies.
Each of the six counties affirmed that they are releasing people charged with low-level offenses after review on an individual basis and that the release does not constitute a public safety concern.
Meanwhile, legal advocacy groups have called for the governor, district attorneys, sheriffs and the police to act now to protect the health and rights of people in jail.
Meanwhile, courts have closed, with some exceptions in order to provide due process to people who are already held in jail.
The decision to release detainees from jail is a county-by-county decision, according to Daryl Atkinson, co-director of Forward Justice, one of the groups advocating preventive action, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina and the Conservatives for Criminal Justice Reform.
— Daryl Atkinson, Forward Justice“Each elected sheriff, they are their own little fiefdom with regards to their powers related to the jail. I don’t know of any global authority that could demand that all of the jails in North Carolina respond a certain way.”
Between the sheriffs and the district attorneys, Atkinson said, criminal justice operates at a highly local level.
Public health response in jails
There are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in any jail or prison in North Carolina yet.
However, jails are an important site for public health intervention because if the virus gets into a jail, it could quickly spread through the population and into the community, according to Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine and faculty member of the UNC Center for Health Equity Research.
“If it’s spreading really quickly because of the built environment of the jail, and we know that people then are also coming in and out pretty rapidly, then if they’re infected inside, they’re much more likely to come outside and bring it to their community,” Brinkley-Rubinstein said.
On an average day in North Carolina, there are about 15,000 people in jails across the state. But that number does not account for the churn through the jails, as most stints in jail are relatively short. Buncombe County, for example, has made 2,462 releases already this year. Some of these releases are for the same individuals who have been arrested and released multiple times.
Advocacy groups and public health experts recommend decreasing the movement of people through jails by decreasing the jail population now and by using citations and court summonses — instead of arrests — for low-level offenses.
