Thread by @TexasTribune

1/ Inside the Texas prison with the most reported coronavirus deaths, inmates are describing their environment as unsanitary, disorganized and dangerous. bit.ly/2YeSJAp

2/ The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has emphasized that healthy inmates are kept separated from sick inmates and those exposed to the sick to limit the spread of the illness. bit.ly/2YeSJAp

3/ But in letters from 20 prisoners at Huntsville’s Wynne Unit, the men locked inside are telling a different story. bit.ly/2YeSJAp

4/ Inmates say the prison continues to routinely place sick or exposed inmates in cells or other close quarters with the healthy.

They say men who otherwise have been separated from each other are still often taken to the showers in large groups. bit.ly/2YeSJAp

5/ Wynne is one of 15 Texas prisons housing more than 200 prisoners who have tested positive for the virus.

There are at least 10 COVID-related deaths at Wynne, including one prison officer. bit.ly/2YeSJAp

6/ Multiple men wrote in letters that they and their cellmates have often been reassigned cells — forcing those who aren’t sick to bunk up with men who are actively coughing or feverish, yet untested. bit.ly/2YeSJAp

7/ Texas says inmates who are exposed are housed as a group in what the prison calls medical restriction.

In medical restriction, TDCJ says inmates are monitored for symptoms twice a day for 14 days. bit.ly/2YeSJAp

8/ Some inmates don’t report symptoms because they consider medical isolation to be solitary confinement — a harsh punitive measure in prisons.

“They put you there and forget about you.” bit.ly/2YeSJAp

9/ Others said they did report their symptoms, like chills and loss of taste, and medical staff recorded their high temperatures when they came by for their twice-daily symptom checks for those in medical restriction.

Still, they weren’t tested. bit.ly/2YeSJAp

10/ The number of inmates testing positive jumped by nearly 4,400 in the last two weeks, from about 2,500 to 6,900 as of Saturday.

The state says the rapidly increasing number represents more information from mass testing, not a surge in infection. bit.ly/2YeSJAp

11/11 The virus is presumed to have killed at least 42 Texas prisoners and seven employees as of Saturday.

The agency does not confirm the cause of death based on initial autopsy reports. Thirty-one more inmate deaths were still being investigated. bit.ly/2YeSJAp