7 Inmates and 3 Jailers Test Positive for COVID-19 at Maverick County Tom Bowles Detention Center, 72 State Inmates Tested
By: Miguel Munoz, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2020
Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber announced on Tuesday, September 22, 2020, a total of seven inmates and three jailers had tested positive for COVID-19 at the Maverick County Tom Bowles Detention Center in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Sheriff Schmerber reported on Thursday, September 24, 2020, that as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak at the detention center, a total of 72 State of Texas inmates were administered a COVID-19 test by the City of Eagle Pass and Maverick County Emergency Operations Center medical personnel and test results should be available within three days.
Sheriff Schmerber stated the Tom Bowles Detention Center had approximately 175 state and federal inmates, including a majority of them being federal pre-trial inmates awaiting trial or sentencing at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Del Rio Division, in Del Rio, Texas.
The first known inmate to have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Tom Bowles Detention Center was on July 31, 2020. This particular inmate was a state case who was tested for COVID-19 on or about July 28 but was nonetheless transported to a state district court hearing on July 29 before receiving his test results, causing the district court to be disinfected and all individuals present at the court hearing to undergo testing and be placed in isolation for 14 days.
Immediately following the first inmate testing positive on July 31, Sheriff Schmerber requested the Eagle Pass and Maverick County Emergency Operations Center Co-Director Leopoldo Vielma to have the Texas National Guard Medical Team come and test all of the inmates at the Tom Bowles Detention Center. Sheriff Schmerber’s request ran into bureaucratic hurdles and the inmates were not tested until the current COVID-19 outbreak.
It is unknown as of press time why the federal pre-trial inmates held at the Tom Bowles Detention Center were not tested on September 22 together with the 72 state inmates.
Sheriff Schmerber noted that the Tom Bowles Detention Center is following all preventative measures to avoid COVID-19 spreading throughout the general inmate population.
