State lawmakers expedite hearing on California prisons amid coronavirus outbreaks

California’s Senate Committee on Public Safety has scheduled the hearing for July 1, said committee Chair Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, who said the transfer of inmates from the Chino prison “raises serious questions” about the system’s management of the virus.

Skinner said prison officials seemed to take the pandemic seriously at first, and made significant strides to reduce population. But that momentum broke down in the last month, she said, for reasons that remain unclear.

“I want to understand what happened, between the initial moves that seemed very based in public health, to now,” she said. “I want to find out.”

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