(Newser)
– A California correctional facility currently accounts for almost half of the more than 2,000 prison cases in COVID-19 state, a fact that Governor Gavin Newsom now calls a “deep area of focus and concern.” Quoting data from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, USA Today reports that of the approximately 2,600 active coronavirus cases in California prisons, more than 1,000 are in the San Quentin State Prison, nearly a third of its 3,500 population. For him Marin Independent Journal, An autopsy is established to see if Richard Stitely, 71, a COVID-19 death row inmate who died last week, is COVID-19’s first death in prison. NPR notes that there were no cases of inmates there from March through May, but that once the outbreak occurred, it spread rapidly. “It is devastating how fast this has moved,” says a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, calling the outbreak “shocking.”
So what caused the outbreak? Newsom on Monday suggested a transfer in late May of more than 120 prisoners from Chino’s California Men’s Institution, where the virus has been rampant, could be behind it. “Unfortunately, they came untested and … really sowed an outbreak,” a Marin County public health official told NPR. What is happening in San Quentin is having ripple effects across the county, as health officials say the hospital’s capacity is being overwhelmed with prison cases. The reopening of gyms, hotels and other businesses originally scheduled for Monday has since been postponed. Meanwhile, in addition to preventive measures taken inside the prison, Newsom says authorities are looking to see if some inmates can be released early, according to CBS San Francisco. (Read more stories from San Quentin).
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