Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration on Tuesday rejected calls for emergency court orders to release prison inmates because of the coronavirus crisis, saying prison officials already are taking sufficient steps to curb overcrowding and protect inmates.

In a filing with a three-judge federal court that is set to consider the issue Thursday, state officials wrote that California already has “taken immediate, bold, and appropriate steps in response to this rapidly evolving crisis, and they are planning to take additional actions to expand their capacity with an intent to do more.”

“The threat from the COVID-19 pandemic is constantly shifting, and with each passing day, government officials are tasked with addressing this dangerous moving target,” lawyers for the state wrote. “In times like these, our system of government is designed to rely on the sound judgment of our elected leaders and their expert staff and advisors to address these complicated issues in a manner that takes all relevant factors into consideration and balances the needs of our state with the limitations imposed on nearly every sector of society by this crippling pandemic.”

Four inmates, 25 prison workers already infected

The state’s filing comes as officials say at least four inmates and 25 correctional staffers have tested positive for COVID-19, and as workers say they still are imperiled by a lack of protective gear and overcrowding that leaves them far too close to other employees and inmates.

One prison worker told The Bee that officials last week taped off sections of floors in one prison to designate “social distancing” areas where groups of inmates meet, but that the efforts still fall short.

“The bottom line is, we simply don’t have enough product everywhere to consistently clean surfaces,” said the worker, who asked not to be identified to avoid losing their job. “No one has handed me a bottle of Clorox wipes, no one has handed me a box of gloves or handed me a mask.”

Three of the inmates who have tested positive are incarcerated at California State Prison, Los Angeles County, near Lancaster and an inmate there told The Sacramento Bee last week that the first one to test positive had been assigned to hand out food trays to inmates in a chow hall.

After that infection was discovered, the inmate said, correctional workers began delivering meals on trays to inmates in their cells, but only some of the guards were wearing masks and gloves when they brought the food.

A fourth inmate has tested positive at the California Institution for Men in Chino, which also has the largest concentration of infected staffers. That facility has 11 workers who have tested positive, the state says, half of the total number statewide.

Intake of inmates from county jails halted

Michael Bien, one of the attorneys for inmates fighting for increased releases, said he is encouraged by the governor’s decision to halt transfer of inmates from county jails into the prisons and to accelerate releases of inmates with upcoming parole dates. But he said that is not enough.

“Under these overcrowded situations, there’s simply no way to do social distancing, quarantining, isolation the way the rest of us are experiencing...,” Bien said during a video news conference with inmate advocates and family members of prisoners Tuesday. “My personal opinion is we’ll need to do more.”

Bien noted that the prison population includes older inmates who are in hospice or receiving cancer and other serious treatments, and that an outbreak could jeopardize their lives and end up sending them to hospitals outside the prisons, where they could overwhelm those facilities.

He added that he was not proposing a specific number of inmate releases, but said the prisons have been overcrowded for years.

“I know that our prisons were built for capacity of under 90,000, and we have over 120,000 right now,” he said.

3,500 inmates within 60 days of parole to be released

The state’s filing notes that Newsom’s order halting intake from county jails will reduce inmate population by 3,000 prisoners over 30 days, and that 3,500 inmates who are within 60 days of parole will be released in the coming weeks.

Another 480 to 530 inmates now housed in dormitories “will be transferred to other prisons with unoccupied buildings or space available,” the state said, adding that there is no need for the courts to intervene as they have in the past.

“California’s already swift and unprecedented response to the crisis obviates the need for the further judicial intervention into and micromanagement of the state’s prison system requested by Plaintiffs,” state lawyers wrote.

‘I am scared of this virus. It’s a ticking time bomb.’

But family members of inmates say they are terrified by the potential for an outbreak of the disease.

Joanne Scheer, whose only son is in quarantine at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, 35 miles southeast of Sacramento, said family members have been given little information about what is going on in the prisons.

“When this virus broke out, we family members we were not informed what kind of preparation the prison staff was taking to keep our loved ones safe,” she said. “So as soon as the virus started hitting, of course everybody had questions.”

Scheer said family members are concerned that not enough testing is being done to determine how many inmates actually have the virus but are not yet showing symptoms.

“The food could be prepared by somebody who is asymptomatic, who doesn’t even know that they have the virus yet,” she said, later adding, “I am scared of this virus. It’s a ticking time bomb.”

This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 12:29 PM with the headline "California granting early release to 3,500 inmates, says no order needed to force more over virus."