California government officials ignored the warnings from frontline health workers and put them under pressure to transfer 189 potential prisoners infected with coronavirus from a Chino male prison in May, resulting in a deadly outbreak of COVID-19 in caused the San Quentin prison, the state watchdog reported. Monday.
As of the end of August, 2,237 inmates and 277 staff members in San Quentin were infected, according to the California Inspector General’s Office report. Twenty-eight prisoners and one staff member eventually died there.
The report blamed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and California Correctional Health Care Services, or CCHCS, for creating a “public health disaster” in San Quentin, the state’s oldest prison. A smaller state prison in Corcoran, which received 67 of the 189 transfers, was affected to a lesser extent.
“Our investigation found that the efforts of CCHCS and the department to prepare and carry out the transfers were deeply flawed and endangered the health and lives of thousands of prisoners and staff,” the report noted.
“The insistence of CCHCS and the Department to carry out the transfers and the subsequent pressure to meet a strict deadline has led the California Institution for Men to ignore the concerns of health care workers and transfer the medically vulnerable prisoner,” although the vast majority have not been recently tested for COVID-19, ”it is said.
Relying on outdated test results, “the prison had no way of knowing if any of the prisoners were currently infected with the virus,” the report said.
The transfers from Chino took place after officials and lawyers representing prisoners agreed that the men should be moved out of the prison’s barracks-style house, where the virus spread rapidly.
At the time of the move, Chino Prison reported more than 600 cases of COVID-19 and nine deaths. The 189 were among 700 prisoners selected for transmission, and who had medical conditions that made them particularly vulnerable to the virus.
Internal emails quoted by the inspector general showed that medical staff in the Chino prison had sounded the alarm before the transfers were made.
The night before the first transfers, a supervising nurse sends an email informing a medical director that some of the inmates have not been tested for almost a month – far too early to find an effective measure for to be infection.
“Is there a re-swabbing criterion that must be met before it can be transferred,” the nurse asked, suggesting a retest.
“No regularity,” management replied 11 minutes later.
In another email, a Chino prison manager alerted a department head of the department about the possible spread of the virus.
“I’m surprised HQ now wants to move our inmates,” the email read. “But we need to make sure we do not infect another institution.”
That and other internal warnings were set aside, and the Chino prisoners were driven to San Quentin in late May. According to the inspector general, the officials of their corrections violated their own health guidelines for captivity on some of the trips.
Two of the inmates had COVID-19 symptoms upon arrival, including one with a fever of 101.1 degrees. But while San Quentin health staff suspected the Chino prisoners were exposed to the coronavirus, the prison housed 119 of them in a unit with solid doors, which allowed air to flow freely through the cells.
By the time the COVID-19 test results returned, 14 infected prisoners had been housed in the unit for at least six days, the report said.
“The virus spread rapidly to the other inmates transferred from the California Institution for Men, as well as to the 202 inmates already housed in the same unit,” the report said.
On August 6, more than half of the inmates in the unit tested positive. Of the 122 newly arrived Chino prisoners, 91 eventually tested positive, and two died from complications associated with COVID-19.
In a joint statement, corrections and prison officials said the transfers were made “with the aim of reducing potential harm to the detainees in Chino” and are based on a thorough risk analysis using scientific information released in May 2020. was available regarding the transmission of this novel. disease. ”
“We have acknowledged that some mistakes have been made in the process of these transfers,” the statement said, “and both CCHCS and CDCR have made appropriate changes to the patient’s movement since then.”
According to the statement, the tests, quarantine and improved use of personal protective equipment were included.
“San Quentin currently has only four patient cases and has remained in single figures since August in terms of COVID-19 positive patient cases,” the statement said.
In addition to San Quentin’s 28 COVID deaths, 27 were killed in Chino Prison and three in Corcoran. A total of 192 prisoners died across the country among more than 47,400 who tested positive.
The deaths caused outrage by inmates ‘lawyers and legal action by some inmates’ families.
In September, lawyers for the family of 61-year-old Daniel Ruiz filed a government claim, a precursor to a lawsuit against the correctional agency. Ruiz died on July 11 after contracting the virus in San Quentin for a minor drug crime.
“It is tragic and unacceptable that some prison bureaucrats consider themselves less than human,” said attorney Michael Haddad.
After reviewing the inspector general’s report, he added: “If the prison officers’ goal was to give inmates COVID-19, it’s hard to imagine what they could have done more effectively.”
Angela Cadena, vice president of the prison organization We Are Their Voices, said the report is not surprising to those with loved ones in California prisons.
“Maybe it’s news to some, but for us it’s been happening since day one,” said Cadena, whose husband was locked up in the Richard J. Donovan correctional facility near San Diego. He tested positive for the coronavirus, she said, but continued to work as a porter serving food to other inmates.
“It’s not only for me as a woman, but also for my children, traumatic,” Cadena said. “They live with the fear of getting the call, and the harsh reality is that we got the call.”
Correctional officials on Monday also defended their transparency in dealing with the health crisis that helped them create.
In October, however, they denied a public record request from The Times that had been pending since July and asked for email and other communications regarding the completed transfer.
“The collection and review of these records will divert critical staff resources from the public health response that is ongoing in response to the emergency and is not in the public interest, especially as the vast majority of responsive records, if not all records, will be released from disclosure, Officials denied the request.
The inspector general’s report also noted that it is difficult to obtain records from the department.
Health care in the state prison system has long been subject to lawsuits that precede the pandemic.
In July, J. Clark Kelso, the federal court-appointed recipient who oversees medical care in the prison, announced that dr. R. Steven Tharratt is removed as medical director of the system across the country, citing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“To meet the current response needs while also wanting to work on the further delegation of medical care to state control, it has become clear that a reorganization is needed for long-term sustainability,” Kelso said at the time.
Tharratt, who was appointed to the post by the recipient in 2010, has moved on to a special health advisor for the recipient.
Kelso itself came under fire from state legislators. In October, six of them asked U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar to remove Kelso immediately and replace him “with an individual committed to the health and safety of inmates.”
MEP Marc Levine (D-San Rafael) said: ‘Mr. Kelso’s mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic at CDCR correctional facilities has resulted in the worst public health disaster in CDCR history. ”
Kelso did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
Hadar Aviram, a professor at UC Hastings College of Law who challenged the release of San Quentin inmates over COVID-19, said correctional officials had no excuse for their handling of the transfers.
“You have black and white evidence that they know of the danger,” Aviram said. “It’s not the same as a mistake. They decided to risk people’s lives. This is the example of deliberate indifference in the textbook. ”
Army specialist Vincent Polanco, whose father, Gilbert Polanco, died of COVID-19 in August after apparently contracting it while working as a sergeant for the San Quentin correction, also holds officials accountable.
“Every day I live in dreams about my father, how life could have been,” said the younger Polanco, who sees the correctional department “as my family” and wants to be a guard himself when he completes his active duty.
He said the “higher-ups” in the system had let his father down.
“Now they are suddenly doing everything they had to do from the beginning, now that they are scared,” he said. “It hurts me a lot to see that leadership really got confused and did not take the initiative to save my father’s life.”