SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — Prison-reform lawyers pressed a federal judge to demand a plan for keeping packed-in California prisoners apart from each other in light of an uptick in the numbers of confirmed Covid-19 cases among inmates and staff at two state prisons.
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar has been overseeing a two-decade-old class action over inadequate health care and prison overcrowding led by inmate Marciano Plata. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that the CDCR must reduce its inmate population to 137.5% of capacity, upholding a 2009 order by a panel of three federal judges in California.
The case took a new turn as the Covid-19 pandemic began to infiltrate the state’s 35 prisons.
In late March, both the Plata class and another prisoner class led by Ralph Coleman asked the three-judge panel to release all medically high-risk prisoners, including those aged 65 and over, and those with underlying health conditions.
The panel denied the request on April 5, saying it did not have the authority to modify the prison population reduction order. There were only 13 inmates infected with Covid-19 at the time.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported this week that two outbreaks have since erupted at California State Prison Los Angeles County and the California Institution for Men in Chino.
According to data supplied by the CDCR, the tally now stands at 75 confirmed cases among prisoners throughout the system, with 47 at CIM and 23 at Los Angeles County. The statewide total for infected staff is 83, with 21 of those cases at CIM and 12 at Los Angeles County.
At a hearing Thursday, attorney Alison Hardy with the Prison Law Office told Tigar that the CDCR has not done enough to ensure that prisoners are six-feet apart from one another, the recommended standard for staving off the spread of the highly contagious virus.
“Defendants have failed to act with the sense of urgency required,” she said. "Despite strong concurrence from public health officials that physical distancing is essential to slow the spread of the virus, the defendants still lack a plan implement to physical distancing in their dormitories.”
On April 10, Clark Kelso, the federal receiver appointed in 2008 to ensure California’s prison healthcare system meets minimum constitutional standards, sent a letter to CDCR Secretary Ralph Diaz, recommending that prisoners currently housed in cramped dormitories be moved into 8-person pods.
“It’s entirely possible this proposal could be developed into an adequate plan,” Hardy said. But she added that she doesn’t believe the state is moving quickly enough. “The speed at which they are operationalizing the receiver’s recommendation simply does not match the urgency of this crisis,” she said.
“My concern is not that it’s rampant in all 35 prisons,” Hardy added. "My concern is that the way the housing is currently set up, prisons in many cases will be a tinderbox for the moment when infection does arrive.”
Using CIM as an example, she said, “ The statistics show that once the virus gets into the institution, it spreads rapidly, particularly in dormitories.”
Hardy said the plaintiffs want the state to submit a plan, with timelines and reporting requirements, on how it plans to ensure that inmates will be kept safe.
Arguing for the state, Paul Mello with Hanson Bridgett said no prison system has done more to mitigate the devastating Covid-19 outbreak. As of this week, the state has released 3,500 prisoners who were within 60 days of their scheduled release dates, and state prisons have temporarily stopped taking in new inmates.
“The wrong they must prove is we are deliberately indifferent to this crisis and we are far from that,” Mello said, adding that the state is committed to enacting Kelso’s 8-person pod idea, and that inmates at CIM and San Quentin are being moved from dorms to gymnasiums.
“A more complete activation schedule is being implemented as early as tonight or tomorrow for approval by the receiver and the secretary,” Mello said.
While he qualified that it is aspirational, Mello added, “There is some belief that the amount of co-horting and transfers to gyms and loosening up spacing in the dorms may be completed by next week.”
Tigar did not indicate how he would rule, but took the arguments under submission and said he would issue a formal order by late Thursday or Friday.
Follow @MariaDinzeo
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