While the work these inmates do in the community typically goes unpaid, Chris Acosta, a spokesperson for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, said “trustees refused to work unless they were compensated.” They’re making $2 per hour.
Images and video show the trustees moving bodies to the eight, soon-to-be 10, mobile morgues set up outside the medical examiner’s office.
El Paso County detention inmates, also known as “trustees” (low level inmates) help move bodies to mobile morgue units outside the Medical Examiner's Office on Nov. 14, 2020.
Due to the recent COVID-19 surge of positive cases and deaths in recent weeks in El Paso, the Medical Examiner's Office has asked the jail for help.
El Paso County recorded a total of 45 new deaths Thursday and Friday caused by the virus.