UC health experts: San Quentin coronavirus outbreak could pose threat to entire Bay Area
A team of UC Berkeley and UCSF health experts warned prison medical officials nearly two weeks ago that they’d need to cut the population of San Quentin State Prison in half to avoid a potentially “catastrophic” outbreak there.
But prison officials didn’t heed the warning and since then, confirmed coronavirus infections among prisoners have rocketed from 48 to 456, far outpacing any other facility in the state and overwhelming a system that waited too long to react.
After errors by California corrections officials sparked the massive virus outbreak at San Quentin, conditions there have become “dangerous” — and the only way to control the situation would be to reduce the prison’s population by at least half, according to the memo by a team of health experts.
The memo, submitted to the statewide correctional health care system on June 13, warned that San Quentin has “profoundly inadequate resources” to deal with the surge of cases, and failure to quickly address the crisis could have “dire implications” for the Bay Area, straining community hospitals and risking the health of incarcerated people and prison employees alike.
State prison officials declined to comment on the memo, and said they will have more information by the end of the week on overall movement and release efforts.
No prisoners at San Quentin tested positive for the coronavirus in March, April or May. It was only after state corrections officials transferred 121 incarcerated men to the prison from a virus-swamped facility in Southern California that the outbreak occurred. The transferred men were not tested for up to a month before they were placed on buses, The Chronicle reported, and after they arrived at San Quentin, the virus began to spread quickly.
At least 1 every 8 residents at San Quentin are now infected, and more than 40 staff. None have died yet, but 20 incarcerated people and two employees at other state prisons have died after contracting COVID-19.
An initial version of the memo, submitted on June 13, was written by six physicians and infectious disease experts, some affiliated with the Berkeley School of Public Health and others with Amend at UCSF, a health-focused program aimed at “changing correctional culture.” On June 15, the group revised the memo to add more recommendations.
They sent the memo to California Correctional Health Care Services, the federally appointed provider of medical care in the state prison system (the arrangement is the result of a long-running federal lawsuit over conditions in the state prison complex).
There are about 3,500 prisoners in San Quentin. A 50% cut in population would leave 1,750.
“We spoke to a number of incarcerated people who were over the age of 60 and had a matter of weeks left on their sentences. It is inconceivable that they are still housed in this dangerous environment,” the experts, who toured the prison, said in the memo.
The experts also pointed to specific housing units as being especially dangerous.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/local-politics/article/UC-health-experts-San-Quentin-coronavirus-15364257.php