Unvaccinated inmate with COVID-19 dies while in custody at Sacramento County jail
An unvaccinated inmate who tested positive for COVID-19 died Monday while in custody at Sacramento County Main Jail, deputies announced Tuesday afternoon.
The 51-year-old man who died had been in custody for nearly five years, suffering from mental illness and awaiting trial on an assault charge as COVID-19 case numbers continue to climb amid a jail outbreak that began last month.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office did not release the inmate’s name. The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office will release his name once his family has been notified.
The man was arrested on suspicion of assault to with the intent to commit sexual assault and booked March 13, 2017, at the county’s downtown Sacramento jail, sheriff’s officials said.
The inmate was “was gravely disabled due to mental illness,” and state hospital staff deemed him incompetent to stand trial in his criminal case, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release. The court had ordered the man to be placed on a so-called Murphy Conservatorship while receiving treatment to restore his mental competency, sheriff’s officials said.
The inmate was not vaccinated, and he was taken to a hospital on Jan. 17 for treatment for “ongoing long-term medical conditions,” according to the news release. On Jan. 21, he was returned to the downtown jail.
All jail inmates are offered the COVID-19 vaccine. Since July, the Sheriff’s Office has offered the vaccine to inmates in exchange for a $20 jail commissary incentive funded by a federal COVID-19 grant. New inmates are booked at jail and tested for COVID-19.
While receiving medical treatment at the hospital last month, the inmate tested positive for COVID-19 during a routine coronavirus screening, sheriff’s officials said. The inmate returned to the hospital Jan. 24 for further treatment for his ongoing medical condition.
“Over a two-week period, he physically deteriorated and ultimately passed away yesterday,” sheriff’s officials wrote Tuesday. “The Sheriff’s Office will conduct a thorough inmate death investigation in accordance with policies and procedures and in accordance with state law.”
Sacramento jail outbreak worsens
While the omicron wave of COVID-19 has subsided across California, a COVID-19 outbreak in the county’s two jail facilities has worsened. Sacramento County health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye in Jan. 27 update voiced her concerns about the jail outbreak, since COVID infections at that time had spiked at the Main Jail after having declined in the previous week.
On Jan. 26, the downtown facility had 135 active inmate virus cases, up from 47 the previous week; and Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center near Elk Grove had 146, up from 123. As of Feb. 2, there were 248 confirmed COVID-19 cases at the downtown jail and 339 cases at the jail at RCCC among 3,324 inmates housed at both facilities, according to the Sheriff’s Office COVID dashboard, which is updated weekly.
Sacramento County health officials reported the daily case rate Tuesday at 64 per 100,000, a 74% decline from January’s peak. California peaked at 297 cases per 100,000 in early January but has since rebounded to 93 per 100,000, the California Department of Public Health reported Tuesday, for a 69% decline.
The two jails also experienced a COVID outbreak in the fall. An inspector general’s report attributed that outbreak largely to crowded conditions, low vaccination rates among inmates and relatively lax adherence to mask and social distancing rules by inmates and staff.
Last month, sheriff’s officials announced they would release more than 200 jail inmates early to mitigate the outbreaks. The inmates eligible to be released were all convicted inmates serving jail sentences; not those still awaiting trial. Sheriff’s Office Data shows 79% of jail population in October were inmates awaiting trial.
Jail inmate deaths
The inmate who died Monday was the first in-custody death of the year in the county’s jails; the last reported jail inmate fatality was in September. The Sheriff’s Office reported seven people died while in custody last year, according to data submitted to the California Department of Justice.
Missing from the state’s data is the death of a 76-year-old man who had been incarcerated and was then admitted to a hospital Oct. 25 because of low oxygen levels. He, too, had tested positive for COVID-19.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 5:27 PM.
