COVID-19 cases are active in 17 of 20 (85%) of Texas Department of Criminal Justice units in Texas, including the Thomas R. Havins Unit in Brownwood.

According to the TDCJ website as of Tuesday, August 4, the Havins Unit is listed as a unit on lockdown.  The numbers for the unit are as follows:

Offender Active Cases – 272
Offender Recovered – 14

Employee Active Cases – 7
Employee Recovered – 0

Medical Restriction – 187
Medical Isolation – 275

Statewide, Presumed COVID deaths total 112 with 37 pending causes among offenders.  Presumed COVID deaths among employees total 14 with no causes pending, according to the TDCJ website.

For clarification on how these case numbers figure into the COVID-19 report issued by the Brownwood/Brown County Health Department, we talked with Cliff Karnes, Public Health Preparedness Coordinator for the department.  Currently, offenders in the Havins Unit are not counted in the local health department numbers.  Employees of the Havins Unit are included in the county numbers if Brown County is their permanent residence.  Employees who work at Havins, but live out of Brown County, would be counted in their county of residence.

The rules are different when it comes to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, such as the Ron Jackson Unit in Brownwood.  According to Karnes, the students or youth at the Jackson Unit are included in the local health department numbers because Brownwood is considered to be their permanent residence. Employees of the Ron Jackson Unit are reported in the COVID numbers for the county they reside in, Karnes said.

According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website, the Havins Unit employees 181 people and has a maximum capacity of 596 male offenders.