Lawyers for California prisoners say coronavirus could kill vulnerable inmates without more drastic action, as inmates tear socks to make masks.
and volunteer programs, halted the admission of an expected 3,000 new inmates waiting in county jails, and began screening workers as they enter prisons. With those measures, the spread of the coronavirus has been somewhat limited and more than half the state’s 35 prisons had no reported cases of COVID-19.
The court-appointed chief of prison medical care, J. Clark Kelso, told prison administrators in an email last week that he supports an “immediate, substantial reduction” in the prison population, but focused on inmates who have homes and families to return to. “Community hospitals, social services and safety nets and other infrastructure are highly stressed, struggling mightily to address the current needs of the community,” they said. “A mass release could further add to the strain the free world healthcare system is under right now.”But the state prison system already relies on many of those same community hospitals for high-level patient care, state lawyers acknowledged.
California plans to move some 500 inmates out of open dorms to alternative housing that includes beds set up in gymnasiums, a return to a practice California used during the height of prison crowding. Prison laborers have also been asked to manufacture hand sanitizer for the prison system. Prison systems nationwide have been under pressure for weeks to step up their efforts. The response has been mixed.
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