Houston Health, Harris County Sheriff to Provide Update On Mumps Outbreak at Jail
Style Magazine Newswire | 7/22/2019, 5:33 p.m.
The Harris County Jail made national news with a mumps outbreak and quarantine in June of this year. See
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/13/health/mumps-texas-harris-county-jail/index.html.
What the Harris County jail did not reveal was the death of inmate Ronald Washington, 68, after being placed in mumps quarantine. Ronald was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital June 10, 2019 but was pronounced dead minutes after arriving.
The day of Ronald's death, June 10, 2019, The Harris County jail issued a press release without mention of Ronald's death:
Recently, several inmates in the Harris County jail began exhibiting symptoms which are similar to the mumps virus.
The mumps diagnosis comes from a doctor's clinical observation; we are awaiting test results to confirm that doctor's belief.
At this time, there have been no confirmed cases of the mumps virus in the jail.
Three days after Ronald's death, June 13, 2019, the Sheriff held a press conference with no mention of Ronald's death:
http://nixle.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pub_media/user34603-1560430264-media1
The Harris County jail has had many of deaths and other serious medical problems due to poor healthcare in the past few years.
Earlier this year the family of Vincent Dewayne Young, who died February 13, 2017 in the Harris County jail, filed a federal lawsuit against Harris County, Texas due to Harris County's long history of ignoring the medical and mental healthcare needs needs of inmates. Between 2005 and 2015, 199 inmates died in the custody of the Harris County Sheriff's Office. Many died from lack of medical care; 26 committed suicide and 22 were killed by deputies.
"The Harris County jail has an atrocious record of deaths due to lack of medical care which continues despite the many deaths and warnings from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards," said civil rights lawyer Randall Kallinen, "The lack of transparency and secrecy at the Harris County jail is appalling. The family and People have a right to know what happened to Ronald and we are requesting the Texas Rangers investigate this matter."