COVID-19 has reached Hays County Jail and, if unchecked, could jeopardize the county’s attempts to control jail overcrowding by outsourcing inmates to other facilities.
Jail Administrator Capt. Julie Villalpando “is holding a very hot potato,” Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra said during the commissioners court’s Tuesday meeting.
Villalpando said as of Monday, 36 inmates and nine corrections officers have tested positive for the coronavirus, though none have required hospitalization. She said random temperature checks detected four inmates with “slightly elevated” temperatures and that subsequent COVID-19 testing found them positive. “Due to that, we decided to test the whole living area,” where the 36 were detected. Of them, she said, only three are showing symptoms.
