Coronavirus quarantine violators can be jailed without bond in some Florida counties. Critics worry it could expose more to infection

By Monivette Cordeiro, Katie Rice, Grace Toohey, Tess Sheets and Cristóbal Reyes

The Orange County Jail's Booking and Receiving Center. Orange is one of several Florida counties where people who break a coronavirus quarantine can be jailed without the ability to post bond.(Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

When Seminole County caught residents who tested positive for the novel coronavirus ignoring quarantine orders to go shopping and run errands, shocked officials quickly issued a mandate last week requiring the infected to stay home or face a $500 fine and possible criminal charges.

Under a judicial order issued Monday, people who leave home after being ordered to isolate or quarantine could be held at the jail on a second-degree misdemeanor — without the chance to immediately post bail for release.

At a time when jails across the state are working to reduce inmate populations because of fears they could be breeding grounds for the virus, other judicial circuits in Florida, including the Ninth Circuit, which covers Orange and Osceola counties, have issued similar no-bond mandates.

So far, there have been no quarantine-related arrests in Orange, Osceola or Seminole, law enforcement agencies say.

The orders allow the indefinite detention of anyone who violates a directive to isolate or quarantine, including those who test positive, those suspected of being infected and those who have been exposed. The bond for a second-degree misdemeanor is typically up to $250.

Shalini Agarwal, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the act of jailing people for quarantine violations is “problematic on many levels.”

“[T]here’s no real social distancing that is feasible in our jails and prisons, so the idea that we’re deliberately going to introduce folks who are at risk of being infected is really just stirring the petri dish to a degree of unacceptable risk,” Agarwal said.

“This is a public health emergency, and for us to criminalize it is … the wrong solution to the problem.”

‘There are consequences’

Seminole-Brevard Chief Judge Lisa Davidson said in a statement her order holding quarantine violators in jail without bond, at least until their initial appearance within 24 hours, is “intended solely for an individual who is COVID symptomatic and flagrantly defies all common sense guidelines for social distancing and self-quarantining.”

But Public Defender Blaise Trettis said the order appears to violate the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits excessive bail. He is concerned it could be used to hold someone in jail indefinitely on a misdemeanor, including those without a positive test or symptoms.

“You not only have no bail, but you might be put into isolation," he said, noting isolated inmates usually have no access to phones or attorneys, as has happened in Brevard County.

Orange-Osceola Chief Judge Donald Myers Jr. said he issued his March 25 order after the Florida Department of Health expressed concern that people jailed for violating quarantine orders would be able to pay $250 and bond out immediately before seeing a judge at initial appearance.

“That would raise concerns about the ability to know where they are,” Myers said.

The state Department of Health did not answer specific questions from the Orlando Sentinel. An unsigned statement from the state’s Joint Information Center on COVID-19 said isolation is required for people who test positive for COVID-019 and quarantine is required for anyone who has been in contact with someone who has tested positive.

Myers’ confirmed his order, which is worded similarly to Davidson’s, applies to people with positive COVID-19 test results, but also to people who’ve been told to self-isolate after being exposed to the virus, he said. Both orders give the initial appearance judge the discretion to modify bond.

Orange-Osceola Chief Judge Donald A. Myers issued an order, dated March 25, that states anyone who violates isolation or quarantine is subject to arrest and being held without bond.

Myers said he is concerned for the health of inmates and corrections officers but added that local jails have appropriate procedures in place to isolate someone who they suspect has COVID-19.

“I think it’s important for people to recognize that there are consequences,” he said. “We don’t take any pleasure in issuing orders like this, but it is driven towards insisting upon compliance with these stay-at-home orders for the benefit of the safety of our community.”

But Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala said she was concerned that jailing an individual who has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, could expose jail employees and other inmates.

“We need to develop a common-sense solution that effectively responds to individuals who flout public safety without putting even more people at risk in our local jails,” Ayala said in a statement. "I have been in touch with both Chiefs and am committed to working with them and others to come up with a workable and humane solution to this situation.”

Orange-Osceola Public Defender Robert Wesley said his biggest concern is that jails are historically places where “sick people get sicker.”

He pointed to Cook County Jail in Chicago, which was determined to be the largest-known source of U.S. coronavirus infections by the New York Times. The rapid rise of infections at the Rikers Island jail in New York was called a “public health disaster” by its chief physician.

Three Orange County Jail corrections officers have tested positive for COVID-19, but no inmates had tested positive as of Monday, according to jail spokeswoman Tracy Zampaglione.

“I think that the jail is dedicated to having a good process in place,” Wesley said. “I think they’re doing everything possible to contain it, and we want to assist in that effort, too.”

‘Like martial law’

In support of the no-bail orders, chief judges have cited a 1943 Florida Supreme Court decision involving a woman in Duval County who was held due to a suspected gonorrhea infection. The justices ruled that a quarantine order is not a criminal proceeding and therefore not subject to bail. The lower court in that case had ordered her release on bail as soon as she was cured.

“To grant release on bail to persons isolated and detained on a quarantine order because they have a contagious disease which makes them dangerous to others, or to the public in general, would render quarantine laws and regulations nugatory and of no avail," the high court’s opinion said.

Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender Bob Dillinger, whose circuit issued an order similar to those in other circuits on March 27, said the Ninth Circuit’s order went too far by failing to require that a person is “reasonably believed to be infected” with COVID-19 in order to be subject to indefinite detention.

The order was presented “almost like martial law,” he said.

“Our first appearance judges were told to treat this as a second-degree misdemeanor unless it was truly a public health risk,” he said.

Stephen Thompson, a spokesman for the Sixth Judicial Circuit, which covers Pinellas and Pasco counties, said Chief Judge Anthony Rondolino’s order “applies only to those who are reasonably believed to have been infected with the coronavirus or who have been exposed to it.”

One person has been arrested in the Sixth Circuit for breaking isolation or quarantine: James Curry, who reportedly claimed to have been infected with COVID-19 and spat in a St. Petersburg police officer’s face. A judge released Curry on his own recognizance on that charge, but he is still being held on other charges.

Dillinger said there was nothing indicating Curry was infected with COVID-19.

People arrested for violating quarantine are to be held in a separate medical building, he said, and area jails have negative-pressure cells which keep air from those cells from circulating to other parts of the jail. When the jail has had inmates with tuberculosis and HIV, it has similarly isolated them from the rest of the jail population, he said.

Dillinger said jails are staffed with medical professionals capable of assessing the risk of potential COVID-19 transmission from people booked on quarantine violations.

The order is necessary, he said, but in general, it is not a good idea to have no bond on a second-degree misdemeanor charge. He said the courts in his circuit will release people, under the condition that they get treatment.

“The order follows the law, and we will address it in a way that protects the community and doesn’t violate the defendants’ rights,” Dillinger said.

Other circuits in the state have not yet issued no-bond orders for quarantine violators. No such order appears in an administrative order database for the Fifth Circuit, which includes Lake and Marion counties, or those for the 17th or 11th circuits, which cover Broward and Miami-Dade counties, two of the hardest-hit areas in the state.

No arrests yet locally

Orlando police spokeswoman Heidi Rodriguez said the quarantine orders cited in the Ninth Circuit’s administrative ruling would be issued by the state health officer, though OPD isn’t aware of any in effect. In Orlando, it’s up to the Department of Health to ask for an injunction or an arrest warrant if a resident who has been issued a quarantine order violates its conditions, Rodriguez said.

“If the judge does issue a warrant, then OPD will enforce the warrant the same way it enforces other warrants,” she said in an email. “However, this is something that has not occurred.”

Orange County sheriff’s spokeswoman Michelle Guido said that the agency has not made any arrests for violations of public health orders, but will continue to work with the community to respond and educate, if there are concerns.

“We don’t want to arrest anyone for violating these orders, we would rather they comply with the orders,” Guido said. “But we will make arrests, if necessary, to keep the community safe.”

Kissimmee and St. Cloud police departments have also not arrested anyone who defied quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19, but the agencies have detained people for violating the county-imposed curfew before Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a statewide shutdown.

St. Cloud Police Department spokesman Sgt. Frankie De La Rosa said his agency is struggling with a lack of guidance from state officials on how to identify people infected with the virus.

“There are some questions that need to be answered, like how do we prove that someone has COVID-19?” he asked. “Do we take the word of someone who says an individual has it? Should we rely on people self-reporting? That’s what we’re trying to find out.”

Seminole County sheriff’s spokesman Bob Kealing said harsh penalties have not yet been used against quarantine violators but, if blatant disregard of emergency orders becomes an issue, the agency is prepared to fine or arrest people.

The Seminole County jail has specific “medical and safety protocols” for inmates who have tested positive, and new inmates have their temperature taken upon booking and are kept in an observation pod for at least seven days to monitor for symptoms, he said.

‘We all share a responsibility'

Davidson’s order helped provide "both guidance and the discretionary authority for law enforcement to act quickly” if they find someone has ignored or refused to comply with public health orders, which puts the entire community at risk, said Todd Brown, spokesman for the Seminole-Brevard State Attorney’s Office.

If presented with such a case, Brown said prosecutors have been instructed to “carefully consider” accepting a request to release someone without monetary bail, but said they could request GPS monitoring or other conditions to help ensure the quarantine is being adhered to.

The office will work with the court and defense attorneys to make sure quarantine violators comply with isolation orders without continued incarceration, he said.

“In this national emergency we all share a responsibility to conduct ourselves with reasonable consideration for the safety and welfare of others,” Brown said. “But we must also be prepared to act quickly and decisively to protect our communities from the reckless behavior of those who do not.”

Still, Agarwal, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, is concerned arrests may disproportionately impact minorities and people of lower socioeconomic statuses, as they will “more likely be in a position where they feel like they need to be … violating some of these quarantine orders to make ends meet.”

It’s not only inmates who can become at increased risk for COVID-19. Corrections officers, contractors and those who come in contact with people who were in jail after they’re released can all be impacted, said Jackie Azis, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.

“We can’t pretend like the jail is some separate entity from the rest of the community. It’s not,” Azis said. “If we want to protect the community, we have to protect all individuals who are in custody of the jail or who go into the jail.”

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Coronavirus quarantine violators can be jailed without bond in some Florida counties. Critics worry it could expose more to infection