The latest surge tied to the omicron variant is fueling an exploding COVID-19 outbreak at San Quentin State Prison, prompting concern among health officials and inmate advocates.
As of Tuesday, San Quentin logged 240 prisoner and 128 staff cases in the last 14 days, up from six inmate and 73 staff infections a week earlier. The institution houses 3,140 prisoners, a little more than half of whom have been tested, according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The prison, along with all corrections facilities in the state, has been locked down since Jan. 10 in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus.
“The increase in cases is concerning, but we have been monitoring this very closely for the past several weeks, and have implemented safeguards and response efforts quickly and aggressively,” state prisons spokesperson Vicky Waters said.
Waters said many testing positive are asymptomatic and “hospitalizations related to COVID have been minimal, in the low single digits, since the surge began.” Specific data was not available, she said.
Vaccine and boosters are being offered regularly, she said. At San Quentin, 91% of the prison population and 76% of the staff are now fully vaccinated.
Waters said movement between and inside institutions is limited and distancing among those accessing services is continuing. Unvaccinated staff are being tested twice weekly, and required to wear masks, as are inmates. San Quentin has designated isolation and quarantine spaces, prison spokesperson Samuel Robinson said.
Inmate advocates are calling on the state to reduce the population at San Quentin in response to the outbreak.
Waters declined to comment on whether the lockdown will be extended past Friday or if population reduction or other mitigation measures were planned.
“San Quentin has gone back to the practices of overcrowding the prison for the last several months,” said James King, campaign manager for Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, based in Oakland.
“There is no ability to physically distance in the event of an outbreak like this one,” said King, who said he was concerned about the toll the outbreak was taking on inmates’ mental health.
The outbreak could have wider implications in the Bay Area as corrections staff circulate in the community, he said.
Leonard Rubio, executive director of the Insight Prison Project in San Rafael, called the outbreak “disheartening” and said he knows people who are still suffering long-term effects after contracting COVID-19 while in prison.
Rubio said he is concerned about a disruption in services during a staff shortage, and whether inmates are being counseled through the emotional impact of another outbreak.
Bradley O’Connell, assistant director at First District Appellate Project in Oakland, said he was concerned that staff are vaccinated at a lower rate than inmates. He pointed to a reluctance to reduce the inmate population to curb the first outbreak at San Quentin, triggered by a botched inmate transfer, in 2020.
”If you want to protect inmates from infection with this deadly disease, which after all is their constitutional responsibility … you’ve got to get population down,” O’Connell said.
