By Juan Montoya
Then positive COVID-19 cases have rocketed to more than 500 at Cameron County's Rucker-Carrizales jail, the sewage system remains backed up, and now the administration has stopped the hearings via Zoom with judges of the county courts-at-law and district courts.
Even after the lock down was announced, attorneys with clients inside the jail could hold hearings with the courts via Zoom where judges could hear their pleas from their courts and the inmate was taken to a court room inside the jail equipped with a camera to transmit his and his attorneys' responses.
That has stopped, lawyers said.
"Now we have a situation where there is widespread contagion, where people are sick and the place smells of human waste because of the backed-up sewage system," said a local lawyer with an inmate client at the facility.
"Before we could do business through Zoom," she said. "Now the jail is refusing to bring the inmates to the television room to have their hearings via Zoom. They are in effect denying the inmates counsel. This could be unconstitutional."
In one case, another lawyer said, his client was supposed to gain his release on a non-violent charge but could not because he wasn't allowed to appear before the court by the jail administration.
When the lock down was announced, the jail administration said it would last until July 31. By that time, the inmate who was supped to be set free this week will have to wait and serve extra time until it's lifted.