Majority of Texas Prisoners Who Died Due to COVID-19 Were Eligible for Parole

Academic researchers revealed in their study that the majority or 58 percent of Texas prisoners who died due to COVID-19 were eligible for parole. 

(Photo : Reutersconnect/Bing Guan)

Texas is the first state in the country that has reached over one million infections and they are recently followed by California. While the number of infections in the state of Texas continues to swell, the death toll also continues to increase.

Read also: US Reaches More Than 100,000 COVID-19 Infections in a Single Day

The academic researchers at the University of Texas at Austin revealed this week that the majority or 58 percent of Texas prisoners who died due to COVID-19 were eligible for parole. The finding was contained in a preliminary report.

According to Newsweek, the data on prisoners' deaths was taken from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice or TDJC. It was found out by the researchers using the data that a significant number of prisoners may have been released before they died from the virus. 

Moreover, the researchers at the University of Texas found out that 58 percent were eligible for parole while nine prisoners were already approved for release but they died when they were still under custody. They could have been released before they succumbed to the virus. 

They also added that 11 prisoners died within one year of their mandatory release dates, 10 dying within two years of their release dates, and 11 of the 14 individuals who died due to the virus in Texas county jails were being held while awaiting trial and had not been convicted of any crime.

It was also reported that most of those who were convicted of a crime to prison and sent to prison were charged for different personal offenses. The report defines these charges as "a broad range of crimes, including robbery, simple assault, sexual assault, and murder."

Additionally, the majority of the prisoners in Texas were charged with personal offenses but a disproportionate number of person crime convicts died of COVID-19. There are many factors resulted to this, which explains why the majority of the inmates who died due to the virus were eligible for parole. 

The first factor could be that the person's crime results in longer sentences and the second could be their age.

There are older inmates in the prison cell and they are vulnerable to the virus. They are also prone to COVID-19 death, according to CDC. The data obtained by the researchers found out that the average age of death was 64 while the average age in jails was 56.

Researchers reported that around 231 COVID-19 deaths were reported at TDCJ facilities from April 7 and October 4. This includes 27 deaths among staff, 190 among those incarcerated in prisons, and another 14 among prisoners in county jails. 

On Thursday, the TDCJ reported on its dashboard that there were more than 25,000 cases of COVID-19 infections at Texas prisons and it also included 2,200 cases.

However, the researchers also claimed that the true number of deaths could be higher and these attributed to other causes from April to September.