Coronavirus in prisons: See which area of the San Joaquin Valley is the most impacted
The number of coronavirus cases in Kings County more than doubled over the past week, fueled by major spikes in positive tests for COVID-19 infections among the inmate population at Avenal State Prison.
The prison is tucked away in a small plain wedged between the hills of the Kettleman and Kreyenhagen ranges, about a mile south of Avenal in western Kings County. Within the prison’s walls and fences, almost 840 of the inmates have contracted the virus since the first cases of the COVID-19 pandemic were reported in the central San Joaquin Valley about three months ago.
According to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, about 126 of those inmates have recovered, and 10 other inmates with active infections were released from custody.
With about 4,140 inmates incarcerated at Avenal this week, the number of infected inmates at Avenal represents about 20% of the prison’s population. It’s the second-highest number of inmate COVID-19 cases among the state’s prison system behind Chuckwalla State Prison in Blythe, where almost 1,000 prisoners have caught the coronavirus.
The inmate cases at Avenal are in addition to 50 prison staffers who have contracted the virus, none of whom have yet recovered to return to work, the CDCR reported Friday. That’s second for staff infections in the prison system behind the California Institution for Men in Chino, where 68 prison staff have been infected but 45 have recovered.
Avenal’s inmate cases, plus eight at Corcoran State Prison and one at the neighboring Substance Abuse Treatment Facility, also in Corcoran, add up to almost 60% of all of the cases reported to date by the Kings County Department of Public Health. Corcoran State Prison also has seven staff who have been infected, while 10 workers have had the virus at the treatment prison in Corcoran.
Subtracting the prison cases, Kings County has experienced 605 coronavirus cases. Of those, six people have died and 489 recovered, according to the health department.
County health officials first differentiated prison cases from those among Kings County’s civilian population on May 20, when the health department confirmed an outbreak at Avenal State Prison that affected 25 inmates and seven staff members.
Of 130 new cases confirmed on May 24 in Kings County, 115 were associated with Avenal State Prison. Since then, the number of confirmed infections at Avenal and the other prisons reported by the county health department have continued to grow:
May 28: 3 new cases.
May 29: 16 new cases.
May 30: 9 new cases.
May 31: 373 new cases.
June 1: 3 new cases.
June 2: 8 new cases.
June 3: 1 new case.
June 4: 245 new cases.
June 5: 2 new cases.
The three prisons in the county account for almost 30% of the 2,852 prisoners with COVID-19 across California’s state prison system. Statewide, 12 state inmates have died from coronavirus disease.
Elsewhere in the central and southern San Joaquin Valley:
Wasco State Prison in Kern County had five inmate cases and four staff cases.
North Kern State Prison near Delano in Kern County had two inmate cases and three staff cases.
Valley State Prison near Chowchilla in Madera County had no inmate cases and one staff case.
Central California Women’s Facility, also near Chowchilla, had no inmate cases and one staff case.
Pleasant Valley State Prison near Coalinga, in western Fresno County, had no inmate cases and two staff cases.
The state’s figures don’t include nearly 1,770 coronavirus cases, both current and recovered, reported by the Federal Bureau of Prisons among inmates, and 61 cases among staff, at its prisons in California. None of those cases, according to the federal agency, are at its prisons in Atwater or Mendota in the central San Joaquin Valley. The virus has killed 13 federal prison inmates in California.
This story was originally published June 6, 2020 at 9:00 AM.
