James Crews, a 65-year-old incarcerated at the Seminole County jail, was asked by corrections staff weeks ago about his interest in being vaccinated against COVID-19. He said he signed up, but has yet to hear back.
Crews said jail medical staff told him they were working to obtain the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but he has not received any update on that process. He said he doesn’t know anyone at the jail who’d been vaccinated, but he’s eager for the shot — especially in light of a recent outbreak.
“They first asked me about vaccination in February,” he wrote. “I have no idea when I may receive it. I am surely ready.”
As jails in Florida have repeatedly battled COVID-19 outbreaks over the past year — some as recently as this past week — there’s still no statewide plan to widely offer vaccines to people incarcerated at the high-risk facilities, even as eligibility is soon to include all adults throughout the state.
Some local jails have inoculated a handful of people who are incarcerated, including in Seminole County, but other major lockups — like those in Osceola, Polk, and Pinellas counties — have not offered any shots.
Orange County Jail spokesperson Tracy Zampaglione confirmed this week that 24 people in the jail, all 65 and older, have received their first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine — a little more than half of the people currently incarcerated who are qualified for the vaccine. The jail houses about 2,500 people. As of this week, all Floridians older than 40 are eligible for the shots.
Zampaglione said there’s no current plan to more-widely offer vaccines, though the jail “is committed to championing the cause, … [a]s soon as the opportunity presents itself.”
Bob Kealing, a spokesman for the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office which runs the county jail, said that 18 of the nearly 800 people who are jailed there have also received the first dose. He said only one person who was offered the shot declined, and all were 60 or older, most with multiple medical conditions.
He said SCSO is working with the county health department on a “plan to further vaccinate inmates now that the age limit has been lowered.”
Kealing said Crews didn’t receive his first shot with other people aged 60 or older at the Seminole jail because Crews had been transferred to another jail a few days before vaccines were administered in Seminole. He was transferred back days later. Kealing said there is “a new round of dosages planned,” though he did not say when.
Jail officials in Osceola, Pinellas, Polk and Lake counties said they have not offered vaccines to any people who are currently incarcerated, and none said they have a plan for when and how that would occur.
The Lake County Jail, which reported a COVID-19 outbreak this summer that killed two detention deputies and one person who was incarcerated, is planning to work “with the Health Department to coordinate vaccination offerings to high-risk inmates,” LCSO spokesman Lt. John Herrell said this week.
Osceola County jail spokesperson Hope Hicka said officials there are “working on a plan to deploy [vaccines] to [those who are incarcerated] once we receive a supply.”
Public health officials have repeatedly called for state and local governments to prioritize vaccinating people in prisons, who are considered at higher risk because of their tight living conditions. But many politicians, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, have argued against vaccinating incarcerated people before others.
Officials for the Duval, Miami-Dade and Broward county jails confirmed this week that COVID-19 vaccines have been offered to some of people who are incarcerated there, though Broward officials did not provide numbers.
In Duval, 35 people 65 and older or with severe medical conditions accepted the first dose of the Moderna vaccine, of the 70 offered, according to J.P. Hervis, a spokesperson for Armor Health, a private company that runs the jail’s medical care. Miami-Dade county officials recently announced about 160 inmates were vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson dose, still a fraction of the almost 4,000-person facility’s population.
Hillsborough County jail officials did not respond to questions from the Sentinel about vaccination efforts for those incarcerated there.
“We have vaccinated some of our senior [people in jail], and as we have opportunities to do that, we will likely continue to,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said Monday at a coronavirus briefing.
But Orange County’s health director, Dr. Raul Pino, said the county is not making any plans to further vaccinate those who are incarcerated at the jail and hasn’t gotten any specific direction from the state about this, despite eligibility across the state opening to all adults next week.
“There are some challenges with the county jail, and it’s how quickly most of the inmates rotate out of there,” Pino said Monday.
He mentioned that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will likely be a better option there because it only requires one dose, versus other vaccines that need two shots weeks apart. Many people incarcerated at the jail only stay for a matter of days before being released. Others are awaiting transfer to a state prison.
Many other states have prioritized vaccinations for those people in prison at the state and local level, noting the high rate of cases and deaths at such facilities, something that has not spared Florida.
The Florida Department of Corrections, which runs the third largest state prison system in the nation, has not vaccinated any of the about 80,000 people incarcerated in its custody, the agency confirmed this week. Though the agency started asking those who are incarcerated about their interest in the vaccine in January, no vaccines have been diverted for this population. More than 210 state prisoners and seven FDC staff have died of COVID-19, according to agency statistics.
The state-run prison system incarcerates people serving felony sentences of a year or longer. Local jails in Florida are run by county sheriffs or county commissions across the state, with the majority of people detained awaiting trail and not yet convicted of a crime. Others are serving a misdemeanor sentence.
Florida was recently ranked one of the worst states for its transparency about COVID in incarceration facilities, including how it reported vaccination plans and the implementation of them, according to a report released Monday by the University of Texas at Austin.
There is no statewide agency tracking COVID cases, testing or vaccines at local jails across the state, and the statewide prison dashboard doesn’t include any vaccine information. The Florida committee tasked with overseeing jails hasn’t inspected most of them in over a year.
The university report recommended that all corrections facilities publicly provide cumulative testing data, current confirmed cases and deaths, as well as vaccination data for both those incarcerated and facility staff. No jails in Central Florida, and none of the largest jails across the state, provide that data on a public dashboard.
“Given the high level of churn in jail facilities, this lack of data means that the communities surrounding the jails do not have access to relevant information about how outbreaks in the jails might be contributing to COVID spread in their communities,” the report said.
Since the Seminole jail reported its latest outbreak last week, with 22 people incarcerated testing positive and one staff, another 19 people incarcerated have tested positive, Kealing said this week, though all cases remain asymptomatic.
But Joshua Frey, 30, described himself as “sick as a dog” over the last week at the Seminole jail, with headaches, fevers, aching, a cough and sore throat, symptoms he said a few other men in the dorm were also experiencing. He said he learned Monday he had tested positive for COVID-19, as had others, but he was starting to feel better.
Though Frey is not yet eligible for the vaccine and “[hasn’t] given it much thought,” he said he has heard eligible inmates talk about wanting to get vaccinated and helped someone file a request recently.
After the recent positive tests, some who tested negative were moved to another dorm despite having been in close contact with those who were positive, Frey said. Jail staff have provided inmates with little information about the outbreak, he said, including whether they were directly exposed.
“It appears the staff here hasn’t been very transparent about things,” Frey wrote to the Sentinel. “I’m a bit annoyed, I think they could have handled this better, and should have done more to make us aware of the fact that we had been exposed… instead of keeping more or less mum about it all until absolutely they had to tell us something.”
gtoohey@orlandosentinel.com and krice@orlandosentinel.com
