Sheriff's Office: 48 Inmates Test Positive for COVID-19 at Nashville Jail

After a couple of weeks with no active COVID-19 cases among Nashville's jail population, and only a few among jail staff, the Davidson County Sheriff's Office says 48 people have tested positive for the illness at one facility. It is the largest cluster of active cases in Nashville's jail system since the pandemic began. 

The DCSO reported on Monday that one inmate had tested positive, and 103 people in the same facility were on housing restriction. The 48 inmates now testing positive were among those 103, and the sheriff's office says they have been in medical isolation since June 15. 

Starting in March, Sheriff Daron Hall, District Attorney Glenn Funk and Public Defender Martesha Johnson worked to reduce Nashville's jail population by releasing people early or agreeing not to jail them pretrial. In April, the city's Criminal Court and General Sessions judges rejected an emergency petition from Johnson that sought the release of large categories of particularly vulnerable inmates from Nashville's jails.