Lawmakers Want Stronger COVID-19 Protections in California Prisons

As prison staff treated inmates with COVID-19 in tents in a courtyard at San Quentin State Prison, state lawmakers in Sacramento grilled prison leaders Wednesday on how the facility, which had no known cases in May, became the site of the largest outbreak of the coronavirus in California — and how they plan to prevent further spread of the virus.

In early June, an inmate who had been transferred to the Marin prison tested positive for COVID-19. Now, more than 1,000 people incarcerated there have tested positive for the virus and one inmate has died.

“The now major outbreak at San Quentin threatens the incarcerated people and staff there, but also Bay Area hospitals and residents,” said state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, who called for the informational hearing before the senate public safety committee on the spreading COVID-19 crisis in prisons. “The decision to transfer incarcerated people from a prison with one of the worst outbreaks — Chino — to San Quentin, which at that point had no known cases, raises significant questions about CDCR’s handling of this crisis.”

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