California inmate tests positive for coronavirus as more workers infected, officials say

Coronavirus continues to spread inside California’s sprawling prison system, as officials confirmed the first case Sunday night involving an inmate and said at least five employees have tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19.

State corrections officials say an inmate at California State Prison, Los Angeles, near Lancaster has tested positive, as well as two workers at CSP Sacramento, also called New Folsom; another at the next-door Folsom State Prison; and two more at the California Institution for Men in Chino.

Another worker at San Quentin State Prison that officials said Friday had been infected has since tested negative. None of the employee identities or their jobs has been revealed.

To date, only one of the more than 117,000 inmates inside California prisons has tested positive, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“The patient is in stable condition and is being treated on-site,” CDCR said in a news release Sunday night. “The patient, an inmate at California State Prison, Los Angeles County (LAC), has been in isolation since March 19 after he notified institution health care staff that he was not feeling well.

“He was tested for COVID-19 on March 20 and the positive test result was received March 22. The agency will restrict movement at the institution while a contact investigation is underway and quarantine those deemed at-risk for an observation period. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has been notified.”

The prison, opened in 1993, has capacity for 2,300 men and is the first and only state prison in Los Angeles County. As of March 1, the facility had 3,201 minimum- and maximum-security inmates, putting it 139 percent above design capacity.

It is situated on 262 acres on the outskirts of the high desert town of Lancaster, not far from Edwards Air Force Base — it is far removed from the county’s population center, being separated from downtown Los Angeles by 45 miles and the San Gabriel Mountains.

Concern from those on the outside

Family members, staffers who work inside and lawyers for the inmates have become increasingly concerned about an outbreak spreading quickly through the overcrowded facilities.

Inmate advocacy groups are calling for rapid moves to release older inmates near projected release dates who are not considered a threat, while a federal judge in Sacramento last week ordered the creation of a task force of inmate attorneys, prison and state hospital officials to report back to her by Friday on the situation.

A corrections source told The Sacramento Bee on Friday that four inmates at Mule Creek State Prison have been isolated with coronavirus-like symptoms, but corrections officials have not responded to repeated questions about that and have not revealed how many inmates have been tested for the disease.

Another says there has been little change to date of policies for handling inmates and that prisoners still are being transferred between facilities without screening.

‘Elbow to elbow’

Staffers also are concerned, with one saying Sunday that efforts to distance workers and inmates from each other.

One worker described reporting for duty while being funneled through a security point with two dozen other employees.

“We’re stuck with like 25 other people elbow to elbow, so if one person sneezed we’re stuck in that area,” the worker said.

The wife of an inmate at San Quentin told The Bee that many inmates do not want to report they are sick because they fear being removed and held in segregation. She also said that despite corrections officials saying they are taking inmates’ temperatures as they question them about symptoms, that is not happening.

Vanessa Ashford, whose husband, Mark, is an inmate at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, said she has not spoken to her husband since Tuesday, when he told her he was sick. The next day she heard from a friend who told her Mark Ashford had been hospitalized, but she has been unable to get additional information from CDCR.

“It has now been another two days with no appropriate response from the CDCR regarding my husband,” Ashford wrote in an email Saturday to The Bee. “I have not spoken to him since Tuesday March 17th at all.

“I have spoken with staff at CTF and been told he was moved and I have 3 separate times asked that he call home. There is no justification for him not having phone access, unless of course he is so sick that he cannot call in which case medical staff has the legal duty to notify his wife, ME!”

Ashford said her husband was living in a dorm with 200 other inmates sleeping on bunk beds in close quarters before he became ill.

“At this point, I have no choice but to assume the CDCR is intentionally withholding pertinent information,” she said. “I fully intend to utilize every single avenue to represent and advocate for not only my husband but also every single inmate and their family. I am disappointed in the lack of consideration and communication from this government organization.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2020 at 8:37 PM with the headline "California inmate tests positive for coronavirus as more workers infected, officials say."