SAN DIEGO (CN) — Inmates in San Diego County Jail facilities will now be offered KN95 and other “high quality masks” and access to soap and cleaning supplies after a county judge approved a settlement in a class action over the sheriff's handling of the Covid pandemic.
The settlement, approved by San Diego Superior Court Judge Joel R. Wohlfeil, requires the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department to provide vaccine information tailored specifically for people who are incarcerated in both English and Spanish, as well as access to soap and cleaning supplies “except to the extent security concerns reasonably necessitate otherwise for class members." The deal also requires that inmates be given Covid tests if requested and receive test results within 24 hours if they have symptoms of illness.
“We always thought that the lawsuit shouldn’t have been necessary,” said Jonathan Markovitz, a staff attorney with the ACLU, who helped litigate the case for the plaintiffs, adding that they were just asking the jail to implement basic common sense measures that public health experts including the CDC said should be taken while the virus was still rapidly spreading. “The fact that the case was necessary itself indicates a serious problem.”
Plaintiff Terry Leroy Jones claimed that because he suffered from diabetes and asthma, he was vulnerable to Covid because of the sheriff's neglectful policies.
“By April 2020, there were reports that people incarcerated in the San Diego County jails were being penalized for pleading for better protection from the virus, and for attempting to publicize their plight. By December 2020, there had been more than 1,200 cumulative Covid-19 cases in San Diego County jails," the ACLU of San Diego said in a statement announcing the settlement. "When vaccines became available, the Sheriff’s Department refused to provide basic and understandable information about vaccine efficacy and side effects, making it impossible for people who are incarcerated to make informed decisions about getting vaccinated.
“The Sheriff’s Department also spent years resisting public health guidance, declining to implement safe quarantine procedures and failing to take basic precautions when people who are incarcerated were transferred between facilities or taken to court hearings.”
By October 2022, more than 4,600 people tested positive for Covid-19 in the county jail system, and at least six Covid-related deaths were reported.
“There is just massive, massive suffering involved that goes beyond the people who died,” Markovitz said.
The settlement also requires the jail system to determine whether newly booked inmates are at high risk of Covid and placing them into more protective housing if they are.
The jail must also provide inmates with up to five KN95 or KF94 masks per week for as long as the CDC recommends incarcerated people wear masks and there’s a high community transmission level in the jail. Inmates in high-risk housing must receive KN95 and KF94 masks if they request them, regardless of whether or not there’s a high community transmission level. It also requires the sheriff to provide surgical masks to inmates at any time the higher quality masks aren’t required.
Settlement terms expire in 12 months “or at such time that the CDC determines there is no longer any need for correction facilities to take extra precautions to mitigate against the risk of Covid-19 transmission, whichever is sooner."
“We do count this as a big victory, but it is just one small step,” said Geneviéve Jones-Wright, the executive director of Community Advocates for Just and Moral Governance, which also represented the plaintiffs. Jones-Wright said she hopes the settlement brings more oversight to San Diego’s County jails, one of the state’s deadliest for in-custody deaths.
Last year, the California State Auditor released a report that found 185 people died in San Diego County jails from 2006 to 2020, one of the highest rates of inmate deaths in county jails in the state. There have been eight in-custody deaths this year alone according to the Sheriff's Department’s own count.
“I really want people to open their eyes,” Jones-Wright added.
The attorney for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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