COVID-19 breached the walls of the massive Harris County Jail Sunday as local officials continued to squabble over terms of a plan to release inmates to combat spread of coronavirus.

Then Gov. Greg Abbott acted to scuttle the entire effort with an order suspending portions of state law. He forbade the release of violent jail or prison inmates — an action that had no one had proposed — saying it would endanger public safety.

“Releasing dangerous criminals from jails into the streets is not the right solution and doing so is now prohibited by law by this declaration,” Abbott said at a Sunday afternoon briefing, hours after officials announced that a 39-year-old man had tested positive for the coronavirus. The order said such a release “would also hinder efforts to cope with the COVID-19 disaster.”

The newly appointed monitor over Harris County’s misdemeanor bail protocol, Duke law professor Brandon Garrett, said the decree violated “many state and federal constitutional provisions.”

Alec Karakatsanis, a civil rights attorney who represents thousands of indigent defendants awaiting trial at the lockup on felony charges, called the governor’s stance illegal and perilous.

“The edict is dangerous, unprecedented, chaotic, and a flagrantly unconstitutional attempt to infringe fundamental constitutional rights,” he said. “If enforced it would have catastrophic public health consequences.”

The executive action came as federal, state and local government officials continued to discuss details of what a jail release would look like in an effort to ward off a catastrophic outbreak among roughly 7,900 people incarcerated at the county jail in downtown Houston.

Officials said that the man who tested positive had been held in general population at the jail nearly two weeks after his March 17 arrest. About 500 inmates have been quarantined and the jail has administered 20 tests with five coming back negative. About 30 inmates are experiencing symptoms associated with COVID-19, according to officials.

One state prisoner has tested positive among more than 140,000 housed at Texas facilities, and prisons have taken steps to prevent an influx of infected or exposed people. To that end, the state has temporarily suspended the transfer of incoming inmates from facilities in Harris or Dallas counties, where inmates tested positive, said spokesman Jeremy Desel.

The governor’s order suspends portions of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure and statues related to personal bonds, barring any personal bonds for anyone with a prior violent conviction or a conviction involving the threat of violence. He also outlawed releasing inmates with prior violent convictions on electronic monitoring.

In a barely veiled reference to the preparations taking place by Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the governor suspended portions of the Texas Government Code permitting a county judge, mayor or emergency management director from releasing people outlawed under his new order. He said criminal court judges who handle misdemeanor and felony cases may still consider such releases on an individualized basis for health or medical reasons proper notice to prosecutors.

Among prison inmates, Abbott suspended portions of the state criminal code related to commuting sentences for anyone convicted of violence or threats.

Multiple plans for lowering the jail population have evolved in the past two weeks, including an executive order by Hidalgo that never came to fruition and a request by the lawyers who sued the county over its bail practices. District Attorney Kim Ogg also entered the discussion, telling the sheriff and presiding district judge that she wanted to weigh in and expedite releases of low-risk inmates in the “high likelihood” of a federal court order dictating either substantive bail hearings or outright release on personal bonds.

“As the legal representatives of the State of Texas, we also have the duty to be advocates for victims and the community in a full and fair bail hearing related to the proposed release of individuals who do pose a substantial risk to public safety,” Ogg wrote, in the letter obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

Hours before Abbott’s announcement, Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal convened an emergency hearing by phone to address incomplete plans by plaintiffs in a federal civil rights case to craft the a release order for people accused of some nonviolent offenses, along with lawyers for the sheriff and the county judge.

An official from Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office told the federal judge that Paxton was poised to appeal any order by Rosenthal that called for blanket releases of inmates.

Rosenthal indicated there were several routes to reducing the jail population amid the pandemic and she was seeking “the cleanest path” to doing it while avoiding any action might slow the process.

Rosenthal set a hearing for Tuesday to address plans for releases by the county and lawyers in the case challenging felony bail. She will also take up a request by Paxton to intervene in the civil rights case involving wealth-based discrimination at felony bail hearings. It is not clear what effect the governor’s order will have on the county or federal efforts to address the risk of a jail coronavirus outbreak.

The judge acknowledged that Sunday’s outcome was not ideal for anyone.

“I knew at the end of this hearing nobody would be happy, including me,” she said. “In that, I’m right.”

Jason Spencer, spokesman for the sheriff, said it’s imperative for officials to move from talk to action to avoid exhausting the county's resources. "It's time for everyone with the ability to act to mitigate a potentially catastrophic outbreak in the county jail to do that to protect the people who work there and inmates they’re entrusted to protect and the people in the community."

Nicole Hensley contributed. gabrielle.banks@chron.com