Published
4 years agoon
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday ruled out releasing violent inmates in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but left the door open to other relief that he said needs to be carefully weighed to avoid worsening the state’s homelessness crisis.
Governor Gavin Newsom speaks to members of the press at a news conference in Sacramento on Feb. 27. Newsom spoke about the state’s response to novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a possible first case of person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 in California in the general public. (AP Photo/Randall Benton)
Attorney Michael Bien, who represents inmates in some of the largest lawsuits affecting the prison system, is among advocates saying California must free inmates to create enough space for prisoners to socially distance themselves like the rest of the state’s population. The system also needs enough room to isolate or quarantine inmates who show symptoms or test positive for the virus, which is generally spread by sneezing or coughing, he said.
“The only way to do that is to bring that population down,” Bien said. “If they don’t, not only will they have unnecessary and avoidable deaths but they’ll have that among correctional officers, clinicians, their families. We need to start immediately to reduce that risk.”
The American Civil Liberties Union was among more than 40 advocacy groups that joined in a letter last week asking Newsom to free all medically fragile adults and those over age 60 and all inmates scheduled to be paroled through next year.
Federal judges a decade ago already forced California to sharply reduce its inmate population to improve prison conditions.
That “allows us greater opportunities to evaluate existing resources, find innovative ways of providing patient care within our facilities, and to lessen the impact on our statewide public health care delivery system,” corrections department spokeswoman Dana Simas said in an email. “Additional measures will continue to be developed based on the rapidly-evolving situation.”
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