A Marin County Superior Court judge on Thursday ruled that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and San Quentin State Prison violated the rights of inmates when the two institutions ignored health and safety protocols at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year, 28 inmates and one employee at San Quentin died from COVID-19 complications after in May 2020, the CDCR transferred 121 inmates from the California Institution for Men in Chino, Calif. to San Quentin in San Rafael as the COVID-19 pandemic was unfolding.
Prior to the transfer, there were no cases of COVID-19 at San Quentin, but afterward, some 2,614 inmates and workers at San Quentin became infected, and 29 ultimately died.
As a result, earlier this year, more than 300 inmates filed emergency petitions against San Quentin State Prison and the CDRC, alleging unlawful incarceration under the U.S. Constitution’s Eight Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, on the basis that San Quentin didn’t take the appropriate measures to quarantine the transferred inmates and stop the virus’ spread.
The various petitioners were represented by the Marin County Public Defender’s Office and the San Francisco County Public Defender’s Office, among others.
The trial began in May and lasted several months and included testimony from inmates and medical experts.
In his final ruling, issued on Thursday, Judge Geoffrey Howard ruled that prison officials violated the inmates’ constitutional rights by transferring people into the prison who weren’t properly screened or quarantined for COVID-19.
Separately, Howard also ruled that the months-long lockdown within the prison also violated inmates’ rights because instead of reducing the prion’s population, inmates were forced to remain in cells smaller than 50-square feet all day, for months on end.
“Doing so enhanced [their] exposure to COVID-19. For the duration it lasted, it also amounted to solitary confinement in violation of common standards of decency,” Howard said in his ruling.
Despite this, Howard ruled that no injunctive relief could be provided to the petitioning inmates, as the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine has mitigated the risk of the virus’ spread, especially since some 80 percent of the prison’s population is now vaccinated.
“This hideous example of systemic violence towards marginalized and oppressed people was wholly avoidable. If the Governor who presided over this deadly disaster still will not act to drastically reduce the prison population at antiquated places like San Quentin, the Legislature must urgently do so,” Managing Attorney with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office said in a statement.
“Judge Howard’s thorough ruling describes the many ways in which CDCR exhibited ‘deliberate indifference’ to the health and safety of the people in its care. CDCR ignored experts’ urgent recommendation for a 50% population reduction, though it had no informed basis for believing that its lesser measures would be sufficient,” First District Appellate Project Assistant Director J. Bradley O’Connell and Staff Attorney L. Richard Braucher, who both worked on the case, said in a joint statement. “We strongly urge the State of California to change course and to take the necessary actions to forestall another disaster, including substantial reduction of the population at this antiquated and highly dangerous prison.”
The CDCR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Or enforce the Death Penalty and reduce the prison population while avoiding recidivism.
Sounds like a solid plan to me
Newsom, and the buck stops there, found a way to reduce the prison population without allowing the voter-mandated death penalty “on his watch.”
Roughly half of those deaths were elderly death row inmates
Wow so murderers are marginalized and oppressed people now?
That pushes the envelope
Good one!
Where the hell were they supposed to go Holiday Inn?
More communist journalism by Betsy the propo bot
Inmates don’t have rights…ever..period end of discussion.
+1
U.S.P. Alcatraz Regulation #5
You are entitled to food, shelter and medical attention. Anything else you get is a privilege.
“This hideous example of systemic violence towards marginalized and oppressed people…”??? Are you kidding me? These folks landed themselves in a maximum security prison by doing something illegal, right?
Only in the crazy leftist mind are these people “marginalized and oppressed.” The only oppressed people are the victims of their crimes.
Inmates’ Rights
Humph.
Youse go to prison and youse pays yar money an youse taces yar chanses. Not as many died as those who died in homes for the aged.
It’s no surprise, the judges care more about the rights of the criminals than they do about the good public.
Mar 13, 2019 newsom executive order, a Halt to the Death Penalty in California.
February 2020 state begins voluntary transfers of death row inmates to other high security state prisons.
“Corrections officials dismantled the state’s newly built $853,000 execution chamber at Newsom’s direction”
https://tinyurl.com/pskjp5e7
LA Times in a 22 July 2020 article called it “… one of the most disastrous prisoner transfers in state history.”
https://tinyurl.com/mh8f9x37
“California’s San Quentin State Prison had zero coronavirus cases, until an inmate transfer in May sparked one of the worst outbreaks in the state and the country. Authorities are now scrambling to contain it. ”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53476208
Rights violated, a Judge’s decision you say, . . . what a surprise . .
Hmm, anyone else hear an echo ? ? ?
Seems to happen over and over when a certain group can’t get done what they want by passing a bill, proposition or by executive order.
Hypothetically speaking of course, suppose something goes wrong . . .
An out of the blue inmate lawsuits get filed, outcome is all but guaranteed and once a Court rules outcome desired all along happens. Press release says something like, the Court is making us do this and once again Judicial system gets the blame.
There will be additional “justification” to close Q,
Too few inmates to justify keeping it open.
They’ll say operating costs are too high and state will save hundreds of millions by closing San Quentin prison.
‘The 2021-22 Budget State Correctional Population Outlook’
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4304
“Yup, . . . . watch ’em eventually “decompress” population at San Quentin to zero perhaps making some very long time campaign contributors, very happy.
Here’s the cherry they may be after,
San Quentin state Prison sits on one of the last Large parcels of bay side real estate, once prison is gone, land would would be generate hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars for those involved.
Time will tell if Bay Side condos get built on land San Quentin now sits on.
Then again am probably completely wrong and these were nothing more than unrelated coincidences.
And what about all the elderly that died from Newscum putting positive covid patients back into nursing homes, but those people don’t matter. He only cares about criminals, continuing his daddy and granddaddy’s work , free the criminal! The Newscum family is as corrupt as the Getty’s , which is where Newscum got all his money.