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Jail COVID outbreak spikes: 107 inmates test positive; jail locked down for 2 days

Story By Michael Gordon | December 10, 2020 6:45 PM

Charlotte attorney Tim Emry, a leader in the call to dramatically reduce the jail population in light of the resurgent pandemic, said Thursday that the COVID lockdown “essentially makes the right to and access of counsel non-existent.”

Emry said he had two bond hearings scheduled for Friday that have now been canceled. He described one of his clients “as an 18-year-old girl with no prior convictions who wants to be home for Christmas.”

“The jail is so dangerous that they have to lock everyone down,” he said. “Perhaps people shouldn’t be in it.”

“These are challenging times for us all,” Sheriff Garry McFadden said in the statement. “Our residents and their families should know that we continue to do all that we can to care for and protect those individuals entrusted to us.

“Perhaps the most difficult aspect of this horrible virus is that it can be spread so easily by individuals who have no idea that they themselves are sick.”

Read the Full Article at The Charlotte Observer

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