TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Apr 30, 2020

Two hundred sixty-six pretrial detainees and jail employees at 201 Poplar have been tested for COVID-19, with more than 70% testing positive, the Daily Memphian reports. According to numbers provided by Shelby County Health Department Director Dr. Alisa Haushalter on Wednesday, of those 266, 155 inmates and 37 employees were positive. Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner said detainees who tested positive had been quarantined in a sterilized environment and that all of them were asymptomatic. The inmates who tested positive are in the jail on felony charges with the most serious charge being first-degree murder. Two jail employees are in the hospital and Jeremy Smith, a 201 Poplar corrections deputy, died from complications of the virus on April 21.