ACLU wants fewer inmates in jail during COVID-19. It’s already happening, officials say

During the COVID-19 pandemic, local sheriff’s offices and State Attorney Ed Brodsky should limit arrests, empty jails of non-violent offenders and either suspend or cancel any agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday.

The Sarasota chapter of the ACLU addressed its letter to Brodsky, as well as the sheriffs in Manatee, Sarasota and DeSoto counties.

“A swift and coordinated response is needed to save lives and protect incarcerated people, staff and the public from the increasing threats posed by COVID-19,” the letter staes.

The letter goes on to say there is a “need for immediate action before it’s too late.”

County jails are at risk for a mass outbreak of COVID-19, the ACLU said, because of close quarters, the sharing of sinks and showers and limited access to medical care.

In a letter to Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells, the ACLU urged the sheriff’s office to reduce arrests for misdemeanors and ordinance violations and provide more notices to appear in court instead.

The ACLU also wants the sheriff’s office to ensure newly arrested individuals are tested and properly quarantined.

Manatee sheriff responds

Wells said the sheriff’s office is already doing a lot of what the ACLU is recommending, but his deputies don’t deal with a lot of immigration cases.

“We don’t arrest people for ICE violations,” Wells said. “What happens is if we arrest someone and they have an ICE hold, then ICE has 48 hours to come and get them. But they are in jail for the crime they were arrested for.”

Wells said many of the procedures the ACLU is asking for were put in place about a month ago. As a results, Wells said there are no cases of COVID-19 in the Manatee jail and the average daily jail population has been significantly reduced.

“Any inmate that is arrested is screened before they enter the facility,” Wells said. “We have a special pod where they stay for 14 days, but most of the time they don’t stay that long because they’ve bonded out.”

Wells said the county jail, which has a capacity of about 1,600 inmates, has a current population of 752.

“We’ve never been that low,” Wells said. “Which shows we are doing a good job keeping the jail population reduced, but not sacrificing public safety.”

Wells said the jail also is equipped with eight individual cells specially designed as hospital rooms should any inmate show signs of COVID-19, “which we are fortunate that hasn’t happened.”

Jail staff have a COVID-19 safety plan in place and are routinely screened. Volunteers are being kept away from the jail during the pandemic, and Wells said every inmate has a mask to wear.

ACLU wants changes in bail

The ACLU is calling for Brodsky to to adopt a bail reform policy during the pandemic that would eliminate monetary requirements for minor offenders and technical probation violators. The ACLU is urging the state attorney’s office to essentially eliminate bail requirements for any offender with less than $10,000 in bonds.

“The state attorney should seek to identify and quickly resolve criminal cases amenable to a time-served sentence considering the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic,” the ACLU further recommends, as well as suspending community based sentences.

“Finally, prosecutors should dismiss cases involving minor offenses, thereby limiting the amount of time a person must spend in court,” the ACLU concludes.

Brodsky said all three counties that comprise the 12th Judicial District may not be doing the “A, B, and C of what the ACLU is asking, but we are doing a lot of those things and a lot more than what the ACLU is recommending.”

Brodsky said the results are in the lower jail populations in Manatee County where the average is around 1,000 inmates daily. There is a similar reduction in Sarasota County, Brodsky said.

Balancing the public’s health, safety

“But we have to balance public health with public safety,” Brodsky said. “So we don’t have one blanket policy in effect. What we are doing is working closely with the courts, defense attorneys and law enforcement and reviewing each case individually.”

Brodsky said in some cases, minor offenders are released on their own recognizance and more often than not, minor cases are being resolved at first appearance.

“We’ve worked very cooperatively in addressing the individual cases to a satisfactory conclusion,” Brodsky said. “Obviously we aren’t talking about the major crimes like murder and robbery, but we are doing a number of different things to bring the jail populations down.

“And again, we are doing this by balancing the need for public health, which we are taking very seriously, and the need for public safety,” he said.