Sacramento sheriff is hiding information about jail COVID outbreaks from the public

Crowding, poor medical care and aging and medically vulnerable populations have made prisons and jails a breeding ground for COVID. Over 56,000 COVID cases and 246 deaths have been reported in California’s prison system alone. Unfortunately, however, little data is available on county jails, including Sacramento’s, making the pandemic’s impact on roughly 80,000 incarcerated people close to invisible.

Although California’s Board of State and Community Corrections has requested that sheriffs and probation departments share COVID data, their responses are often incomplete or erroneous. Several sheriffs refuse to participate, as the board does not require them to do so; in fact, no state agency or court has issued a data reporting mandate to sheriff’s offices. Disclosure of COVID cases and deaths in jails is completely at sheriffs’ discretion.

This prevents data-driven public health decisions as public health experts are in the dark about the virus’ impact on jails. It’s impossible for community members and advocates to intervene and hold a sheriff accountable when COVID guidelines are not being followed. While state health officials have recognized that jails are “high-risk” environments and instituted measures such as mandatory testing or vaccination to curb infections, the public is being kept ignorant about implementation of these measures.

I founded the Covid In-Custody Project with the mission to fill this serious data transparency gap. Over the past year and a half, my team and I have been collecting and compiling COVID data from Northern California’s biggest county jail systems using the California Public Records Act.

Although sheriffs are required to provide data under the act, some refuse to do so. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office is a prime example of a public agency evading data transparency despite its legal obligations.

Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones’ office doesn’t disclose COVID cases, testing or vaccination rates among staff members at the Main Jail or the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center despite a statewide California Department of Public Health order requiring all corrections staff to be vaccinated or tested weekly. Our public records requests for this data have either been ignored or declined.

It’s imperative to track COVID among jail staff given their tendency to transmit the virus to incarcerated people. In California’s prison system, 50% of outbreaks between May and July were linked to correctional officers. Without data on staff infections, it’s impossible to perform contact tracing and hold sheriffs accountable.

Even Sacramento County’s public health leaders are unaware of Sheriff’s Office vaccination and testing data. Dr. Sandy Damiano, who oversees jail health services, presents monthly updates to the county’s Public Health Advisory Board on vaccinations among those providing care in the jails, roughly 95% of whom were fully vaccinated as of November of 2021. But Damiano has said she has no insight into vaccination rates among the sheriff’s staff.

This isn’t the only way the Sheriff’s Office has concealed COVID data. Last year, when my team submitted a public records request for basic data on positive cases and tests among inmates, we were thrown into months of paperwork and back-and-forth emails. Months later, the office began posting some COVID data for the incarcerated on its website but remained silent as to staff.

In October, the county’s jails reported one of their worst outbreaks since the pandemic began. Over 150 cases were identified across both facilities, and two people died of COVID-related complications. Less than 30% of the population was vaccinated at the time, according to Damiano. On January 12, another outbreak of 120 cases was reported.

The pandemic will continue to affect high-risk settings such as jails, but data transparency can help experts minimize the harm. Unfortunately, Sacramento County health officials have taken no action since our concerns were brought to their attention. We urge county leaders to step up and enable data-driven public health decisions.