Last week, as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Texas rose, Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner urged local police to think twice about who they arrest and bring to his jail.
In his letter to local law enforcement officials, first reported Wednesday by the Dallas Morning News, Skinner noted that more than 50 people a day enter the 1,300-bed county lockup that he oversees. The sheriff, a Republican, suggested that whenever possible, officers should issue citations rather than arresting and booking people, especially for those accused of petty or nonviolent offenses like getting caught with a joint. “I ask you to use your best judgment on arrests and transports to the county jail,” Skinner wrote. “Would you arrest if you and your staff had to take custody of and care for the person?”
Skinner isn’t the only Texas sheriff looking to reduce his jail population amid fears that COVID-19 could quickly spread behind bars. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzales, a Democrat who has also urged police to stop making low-level arrests, is now working with local judges to release nonviolent defendants stuck in jail, according to the Houston Chronicle. On Friday, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, also a Democrat, issued his own plan that would—in addition to implementing new health screenings and other precautions—minimize arrests and lower the county jail population “in an effort to protect the community we serve, our employees, and the inmates within our facility.”
