Following the recent positive diagnoses of 17 youths inside multiple Texas state juvenile lockups, it has been announced by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department that they will begin testing all staff and detainees for COVID-19.
According to the agency, mass testing will take place at their five secure lockups, which holds approximately 700 detainees and employs approximately 1,700 staff. The same oral tests will be used as the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, who also used them to conduct more than 100,000 tests on adult detainees.
State juvenile lockup population has been decreasing over the years due to reports of both sexual and physical abuse, which has caused local officials to keep less youth in the facilities as a result.
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department had practically eluded many reported cases of COVID-19 that had first been deemed a state emergency back in March. News agency releases stated that two employees had tested positive for the virus back in April and May of this year; however, last month, a total of 28 additional employees and 17 detainees ended up testing positive for COVID-19 at four of Texas’s juvenile lockups. Four additional detainees also tested positive for COVID-19 at the department’s halfway houses as well.
In a recent news release, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department stated that the detainees were all being treated for COVID-19 at the lockups themselves; however, one detention officer had died on June 28 following contracting the virus just one week prior.
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department has also stated that it has tested less than 300 detainees for COVID-19, and that the mass testing, which is slated to be completed next week, will be administered with the assistance of employees from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Despite the fact that the tests themselves are marketed as self-administered, a news release from the Texas Juvenile Justice Department states that their staff will be administering the mouth swabs, which takes about 20 seconds to complete.
Back in May, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice began to implement mass testing at many infected prisons due to COVID-19 spreading quickly among inmates. The state of Texas bought approximately 300,000 of the self-administered oral tests for $45 million according to an order from the Texas Department of Emergency Management. These tests were purchased from California-based company Curative at $150 each.
According to a spokesperson from the Texas Department of Emergency Management, the state has also purchased additional COVID-19 oral swab tests beyond the 300,000 that had been originally purchased back in May, and the state is also transitioning to using the test for military mobile testing teams as well.
The executive director for the Texas Juvenile Justice Department had the following to say in regards to this as well:
Covid in Texas Jails – “I am grateful for the partnership with the State of Texas and TDCJ, which will allow our agency to conduct out first mass-testing program. As we see an increase in COVID-19 cases at our facilities, the best way to protect our youth and our employees is to fully understand the situation and respond accordingly.”