[Pnews] COVID-19 is a death sentence for many California prisoners. Gov. Gavin Newsom must act

Prisoner News ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Mon Jul 6 11:14:31 EDT 2020


https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article243938567.html?fbclid=IwAR3n3SPeQST-ukE4n5zIuu6FPyCCrsFVqaMuONr_gy5q5w-JUYcyt8x3GHQ
COVID-19
is a death sentence for many California prisoners. Gov. Gavin Newsom must
act

By The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board - July 02, 2020
------------------------------

In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom imposed a death penalty moratorium
<https://www.npr.org/2019/03/12/702873258/gov-gavin-newsom-suspends-death-penalty-in-california>
in California. Will it matter?

The COVID-19 outbreak unfolding at San Quentin State Prison
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/29/san-quentin-coronavirus-cases-covid-19>
– and in other jail and prison facilities around the state – may impose
death sentences on people who never received them from the courts. As of
Friday, over 1,300 of San Quentin’s 3,000 inmates had tested positive for
the virus and one had died. Dozens were hospitalized, but hospitals had
started to reject further transfers from the prison, according to the Marin
Independent-Journal.
<https://www.marinij.com/2020/06/29/marin-asks-newsom-to-intervene-in-san-quentin-outbreak/>

The problem is worsening, with cases reported at nearly every California
prison facility. Newsom must now pursue bold and unprecedented solutions to
address this unfolding humanitarian disaster. If he fails to act, the
governor who sought to end the death penalty may end up overseeing the
execution – by pandemic – of more prisoners than any governor in modern
history.

“In California prisons, the number of cases has risen by nearly 200 percent
and deaths by 144 percent during the past month,” according to the New York
Times
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/us/san-quentin-prison-coronavirus.html>.

“We did not meet this moment,” said Assemblyman Marc Levin, D-Greenbrae,
during a legislative hearing on Wednesday. Levine, who represents Marin
County, called the Newsom administration’s response “an unacceptable and
unmitigated disaster delivered by a lack of planning and preparation.”

“This is the biggest prison catastrophe in state history, and we’re not
getting the attention we need from the administration to make sure that it
can be contained,” he told the Marin Independent-Journal
<https://www.marinij.com/2020/06/29/marin-asks-newsom-to-intervene-in-san-quentin-outbreak/>
.

Levine has called on federal judges to replace J. Clark Kelso
<https://www.mcgeorge.edu/profiles/faculty/j-clark-kelso>, the federal
receiver in charge of California’s prison healthcare system. The COVID-19
catastrophe at San Quentin started after Kelso authorized the transfer of
inmates from a prison in Southern California to San Quentin.

“A federal judge wiped away tears Friday as he addressed an increasingly
disastrous coronavirus outbreak
<https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Coronavirus-outbreak-at-San-Quentin-State-Prison-15353583.php>
at San Quentin prison, calling the recent transfer of infected prisoners to
the facility a ‘significant failure of policy and planning,’” according to
the San Francisco Chronicle
<https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Federal-judge-San-Quentin-COVID-19-outbreak-15358348.php>.


“We know what’s going to happen. We know,” said Judge Jon Tigar said, his
voice cracking, reported the Chronicle. “So, you have the chance to avoid
some unnecessary infection and mortality at San Quentin. Probably.”

The judge urged authorities to find ways to transfer or release more
prisoners to avoid unspeakable carnage.

On Monday, Newsom pointed to earlier efforts that resulted in a
“decompression” of the prison system through the release of approximately
3,500 inmates who were nearing completion of their sentences. He said his
administration has now identified nearly 3,500 more inmates who may also be
eligible for early emergency release, but pointed out that some of those
inmates have no place to go if they’re released.

Legislators and advocates are pushing him harder. Some want the governor to
use the full powers of his office, including the power of commutation, to
release more inmates before it’s too late. A coalition spearheaded by the
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights has called on the governor to declare an
emergency and develop guidelines to release old, frail, medically
vulnerable or low-risk prisoners.

“At this point, the only way we can protect the lives of people at San
Quentin and the larger public is to reduce the prison population as quickly
as possible,” said San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju. “San Quentin is
cited as the premier example of a rehabilitation- and redemption-focused
institution. It is time to honor that image by releasing people based on
who they are today, not based on what they may have done years or decades
ago.”

Newsom pushed back at the idea of a mass release of inmates, saying some of
them have no life plans and no place to go. It’s a fair point, though it’s
hard to imagine anything more hellish than being locked up in an
overcrowded 19th century prison during a deadly viral outbreak. A slow,
bureaucratic and politically-cautious response to this emergency will cost
lives.

At stake here is the very notion of justice. Many California inmates are
doing time for serious crimes. The question is whether they deserve to die
due to an uncontrolled COVID-19 outbreak. Some may still pose a threat, but
many elderly and medically vulnerable prisoners are being kept behind bars
for the sake of punishment rather than justice.

Our prisons have many elderly and low-risk inmates who, despite their past
crimes, pose little or no threat to society. Newsom said 42 percent of San
Quentin’s prison inmates are considered “medically vulnerable
<https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/06/29/newsom-rising-covid-19-numbers-leading-state-to-toggle-back-reopening-increase-enforcement/>.”
The chances that these men would re-offend are exceedingly low, and the
governor has broad power over their fates.

This week, as the virus spread uncontrolled through the prison, the Newsom
administration rushed to build triage tents
<https://www.ktvu.com/news/san-quentin-prisoners-moved-into-triage-tents-with-coronavirus-outbreak>
to house inmates at San Quentin. But tents aren’t a real solution.

If ever a moment called for Newsom to summon his trademark courage and
boldness to do what conventional thinkers believe cannot be done, it is
now. We call on the governor to use his vast powers to take any emergency
actions necessary to save California inmates from dying preventable and
unjust deaths behind bars.

[image: true]

FILE - A Department of Corrections officer guards the main entryway leading
into San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif., July 24, 2019.
California lawmakers harshly criticized state corrections officials
Wednesday, July 1, 2020, for a “failure of leadership” for botching their
handling of the pandemic by inadvertently transferring infected inmates to
an untouched prison, triggering the state’s worst prison coronavirus
outbreak. A third of the 3,500 inmates at San Quentin State Prison near San
Francisco have tested positive since officials transferred 121 inmates from
the heavily impacted California Institution for Men in Chino on May 30
without properly testing them for infections. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg,
File) Eric
Risberg AP
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