As cases of coronavirus continue to increase nationwide in prisons and detention facilities, a second outbreak in the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), where countless young people tested positive for Covid-19, tested positive.
As of January 4, the department reported that there are 17 young people in jail who are currently positive. In total, at least 119 prisoners out of the 750 young people in custody have tested positive for the virus since June. Lawyers suspect the actual numbers are even higher, claiming that there were 40 new cases in December alone, according to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, a nonprofit organization that provides assistance and policy analysis to reduce prison sentences.
The department did not make updated information available. According to Renee Menart, a communications and policy analyst at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, leaving parents of imprisoned children in the dark and forcing imprisoned children to navigate the infection alone also did not establish safe precautions.
It is also unclear how many people who contracted the virus have recovered and what medical attention is being given there.
“We have seen a real reluctance to introduce greater precautions and greater guidelines,” Menart said. He noted that information on infection and recovery rates changes frequently without explanation on the agency’s website.
Prisoners are particularly vulnerable to the impact of the virus, with reports that one in five incarcerated Americans has contracted coronavirus and that prisons show high mortality rates. Israel Villa, the deputy director of the California Alliance for Youth and Community Justice (CAYCJ), said the centers have the same physical layout as state prisons, with juveniles housed in multi-person units. But while most state and local jurisdictions have relocated to release adults from prisons and prisons, juvenile detainees are often last considered for early release.
‘I called from a mother whose son is in DJJ. “A child in the unit was apparently ill, and they all tested in the unit, and eight of them came back positive,” Villa said. He said the son of this mother was forced to quarantine in solitary confinement, without a blanket or access to food. The imprisoned boy said he did not receive any medical help.
In March, the Justice Department suspended visits to family and friends, which reduced the already limited contact the young people have with their loved ones. Now Villa has said the agency does not continuously notify parents if their children become infected. The mother Villa only heard with her about the infection of her son after he was forced to quarantine. “She did not speak to her son for several weeks,” Villa said. “So you can only imagine how parents feel.”
“It is very important that family members are placed in an advocacy role,” Menart said. ‘If family members are restricted [to] if they only find out directly from their child in the facilities, there is so much information that gets lost. ”
While young people are at lower risk for serious Covid effects, some in detention, the vast majority of whom are black and Latino, have underlying health conditions such as asthma that can increase the severity and impact of an infection. Chronic health conditions are driven in part by systemic non-investment in color communities, contributing to the higher infection rates and deaths of Latino and Black patients.
This is the second outbreak in California’s juvenile prison, the first of which occurred during the summer months. Both outbreaks, as with everything that occurs in prisons and detention facilities, are the result of the virus being brought in from outside, often by staff and corrections.
A former DJJ employee, who remained anonymous due to the sensitive nature of this topic, confirmed that many staff do not wear masks or other personal protective equipment, and former colleagues were told that if they did not have a fever within ten days after they have not shown symptoms they can return to work.
DJJ strongly denies these allegations. Mike Sicilia, the deputy press secretary of juvenile justice in the California Department of Corrections, told the Guardian that staff should be required to wear masks to children, that young people who tested positive were medically isolated for ten days and that those treated with symptoms. in the sick bay.
“The top priority of DJJ is the safety and well-being of the youth and staff,” Sicilia said.
In January last year, before the pandemic began, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom approved plans to close the facilities, displacing the state system with greater reliance on local and rural prisons. The closures will take place in phases and the full dismantling will probably take years.
The unnamed former employee suggested that the reaction of administrators to the virus was a reaction to plans to close the department. “We do not know if we will stay open and we do not know if we will close, but we want to say, ‘Oh, let’s stick to our numbers. ‘Let’s stick to our dollars, these are our customers, our youth. ”