Closed Miami-Dade Jail Used As Sick Ward During COVID Surge

CBS Miami

February 15, 2022

In early 2020, when COVID-19 ran rampant within South Florida jails, Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation wanted to evaluate how to curb the virus’ spread.

One option — reopening the Miami-Dade Training and Treatment Center, a jail shuttered since 2016 — was quickly shot down by officials monitoring the county’s jail system for the federal government due to the facility’s inability to “meet the minimal constitutional standards for inmate confinement,” according to a memo from then-Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez.

But in January, as the omicron variant ripped through Miami, the county turned the jail into a COVID ward, sending at least 70 people into the facility to try and isolate contagious detainees.

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