As jails across California release inmates amid the coronavirus pandemic, one Bay Area county was going out of its way to fill its jails with nonviolent suspects — a move one critic called reckless.

As of late last week, Solano County sheriff’s deputies were driving to other county jails and picking up recently freed people on minor traffic offenses, then transporting them to their own jail.

Thursday’s arraignment docket in Solano County Superior Court included three of these defendants: One was transported from a Sacramento County jail, another from a Contra Costa County jail, and a third from a Santa Clara County jail. Both Sacramento and Santa Clara counties have begun granting early release due to coronavirus concerns.

“The Solano County Sheriff’s Office is picking people up on meaningless traffic misdemeanor bench warrants and bringing them to Solano County Jail,” said Nick Filloy, a public defender who handled the cases’ initial appearances on Thursday. “If they are trying to give COVID-19 to all of my incarcerated clients, they are doing a bang-up job.”

All three of the men were deemed low enough risk to be released on their own recognizance from Solano County, after spending a night there in jail.

Misdemeanor bench warrants and traffic offenses are the types of crimes that many departments are now choosing to cite and release rather than arrest and jail — a move that results in fewer people entering lockup in the first place.

On Monday morning, shortly after The Chronicle started asking questions about the policy, officials from the Solano County Sheriff’s Office announced a new order: With some exceptions, the department would “no longer be picking up misdemeanor warrants from out of the county.”

The directive, issued by Solano County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Jon Mazer, stated that if there are pending pickups, the deputies should contact the agency holding the warrants and request the person be cited out.

Deputy Daniel ‘Cully’ Pratt, a spokesman with the department, confirmed that the traffic warrants were not a priority during the pandemic.

“It’s one of the many, many moving parts we have to change up,” Pratt said.

There were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 among Solano County jail inmates or staffers as of Monday, Pratt said.

None of the three men released from other counties and then re-booked into the Solano County jail in Fairfield appear to have been a beneficiary of COVID-based early release programs. Officials from Sacramento and Santa Clara counties said the two men had already completed their sentences, and Contra Costa County has not granted any widespread releases due to the coronavirus.

Filloy, the defense attorney, attempted to raise his concerns in court Thursday, where the three men made initial appearances before a superior court commissioner. The public defender stressed that one defendant was transported from Santa Clara County, which has the most coronavirus cases in the Bay Area although none have been confirmed in the jails.

“My hope is that the court might get in touch with the DA’s office and Sheriff's office about cite releasing some people, because (the current practice) seems like kind of the way we're just going to spread any virus everywhere,” Filloy said, according to a transcript of proceedings.

Superior Court Commissioner Bryan Kim replied that he had no power to tell the sheriff’s office what to do.

“There's been communications about these sorts of cases and, as you can probably guess, this is brand new for everybody,” Kim said.

Solano County is one of the many jails across the state granting releases to non-violent inmates with either little time left on their sentence or who are especially vulnerable to becoming seriously sickened by the virus.

Alameda County’s jail population has shrunk by nearly 500 individuals since the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place orders began to take effect, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office has released 71 people in the past two weeks, and Sacramento and L.A. county jails have each released hundreds.

According to a Friday press release, the Solano Sheriff’s Office received an court order to begin releasing those with fewer than 60 days left of their sentence. Approximately 49 people have qualified to date, according to Pratt.

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @meganrcassidy