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Coronavirus: Can this California prison save itself from Covid-19?
 [BBC] 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.On a typical morning, Jack Walter, 54, begins his day by going for a walk in the yard. At San Quentin State Prison, he and the roughly 3,500 other inmates share the communal outdoor space. "Four laps is around a mile," Jack said. "I walk about three miles and talk to the fellas." A short while later, Jack begins his work in the prison's canteen, a privilege he earned during his 24 years behind bars. Even as the coronavirus outbreak ravaged California this spring, Jack's routine remained largely unchanged. Despite fears about virus spread in prisons, as late as May San Quentin had no reported cases. But in the last days of the month, 121 inmates from the California Institute of Men in Chino - then in the throes of its own outbreak - were transferred to San Quentin. Many of the men had not been tested for weeks prior to the move, state officials later confirmed, and the transfer sparked an outbreak that swept through more than one third of San Quentin's inmate population. There have now been at least 2,159 confirmed cases of Covid-19 at San Quentin and 19 deaths. The prison, which sits in Marin County, 30 minutes north of San Francisco, is home to one of the worst outbreaks in the state and country. On 6 July, about a month after the outbreak began, the state's most senior prisons medical official, Dr Steven Tharatt was fired. Later that month, all transfers to or from San Quentin were suspended indefinitely. Prison authorities didn't test the prisoners before the transfer, according to Marc Levine, a California assemblyman for Marin County. "This ended up being the worst prison health screwup in the state's history," he said. A spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) declined to comment on the transfer.... Although it's difficult to have any sympathy for an outbreak at San Quentin or any other prison full of scum, the decisions and failures of the California authorities were despicable. Perhaps we can evoke the words of comedian Steve Martin: "I forgot.”
Posted by: Clem 2020-07-28 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=578098 |