Inmate transfers by state prisons was flawed, inspector general report finds

State prison officials inadequately tested medically vulnerable prisoners in an effort to rush through a massive transfer to the San Quentin lockup in the early weeks of the pandemic, California’s inspector general has determined.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and its health services division should have taken more safety measures, such as isolation, quarantining and contact tracing during its rushed transfer of medically vulnerable inmates, states a 60-page report issued Monday by Inspector General Roy Wesley.

The transfer period ran from May 28 to May 30. Prison officials were in a rush to comply with an agreement reached in Plata v. Newsom, 01-cv-1351 (N.D. Cal., filed April 5, 2001), a long running case in which the plaintiffs’ attorneys filed motions to reduce the prison population at the onset of the pandemic. But with a deadline to move more than 67 vulnerable inmates to a lockup in Corcoran and 122 to San Quentin, executives from California Corrected Health Care Services “pressured staff at the California Institution for Men to take whatever action was necessary to execute the transfers within this time frame,” Wesley wrote.

Prisons department spokesperson Dana Simas said several factors not referenced in the report contributed to the urgency to move the inmates.

“The transfers were done with the intent to mitigate potential harm to . . . patients from COVID-19, and were based on a thoughtful risk analysis using scientific information available in May 2020 concerning transmission of this novel disease,” Simas said. “We have acknowledged some mistakes were made in the process of these transfers.”

She added that the agencies involved have made appropriate changes to patient movement since that time. “These changes include increased testing, the use of designated isolation and quarantine spaces, and the enhanced use of personal protective equipment when indicated,” she said.

Since the changes, there have been no COVID-19 outbreaks attributed to the transfers, Simas added.

The California Institution for Men was one of the first prison facilities in the nation to experience a COVID-19 outbreak. In May 2020, 189 inmates were transferred to either Corcoran or San Quentin. The inspector general said the review of the California Correctional Health Care Services’ plan for the transfers were “deeply flawed, and risked the health and lives of thousands of incarcerated persons and staff.”

By the end of August, more than 2,000 inmates and 277 staffers were infected while 28 inmates and one staffer died, the report said. The department failed to conduct contact tracing, but the prison staff also argued there were too many positive cases over a short timeframe to conduct meaningful contact tracing, the report said.

Since the transfers, the state agencies “have taken multiple actions to better safeguard persons transferring between prisons, including implementing procedures requiring prisons to conduct a COVID testing of transferring incarcerated persons no more than five days before the transfer, followed by a rapid test on the day of the scheduled transfer,” the report stated.

However, on Dec. 31, the prisons department reported more than 8,500 active cases among inmates and 4,333 active cases among staff. The department also reported 130 inmate deaths, and 11 staff member deaths, the report said.

Kathleen Boyle, deputy public defender in Marin County, said the inspector general’s latest findings confirmed the prisons department violated the 8th Amendment when it transferred convicts to San Quentin.

“CDCR officials were advised by medical staff in writing the dangers transfers presented, and the medical staff advised the transfer should be slowed down,” Boyle said. “CDCR proceeded anyway stating the benefits outweighed the risks. CDCR should not be trusted with conducting transfers.”

“It is clear that the OIG report strongly supports the conclusion of the California Court of Appeal in its October 20, 2020 decision that CDCR exhibited ‘deliberate indifference’ in its response to COVID-19 at San Quentin,” said J. Bradley O’Connell, assistant director and attorney with the First District Appellate Project.

O’Connell said experts found San Quentin’s outdated infrastructure contributed to widespread contagion, and that decarceration or early releases were the only viable means of preventing further spread. In re: Ivan Von Staich on Habeas Corpus, 2020DJDAR11353. The 1st District Court of Appeal justices ordered San Quentin’s inmate population cut by 50% to conform to health guidelines.

In December, “the Supreme Court has subsequently transferred the case back to the Court of Appeal to consider the ‘efficacy’ of the measures CDCR took in response to the San Quentin outbreak and what ‘appropriate health and safety measures’ CDCR should take going forward,” O’Connell said. The OIG’s report should help inform further judicial review and help guide an appropriate resolution to prevent more future outbreaks, he said.