{"id":47197,"date":"2021-02-11T19:39:15","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T03:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/?p=47197"},"modified":"2021-02-20T20:44:47","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T04:44:47","slug":"as-california-prisons-face-covid-outbreak-organizations-demand-gavin-newsom-grant-mass-releases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/en\/as-california-prisons-face-covid-outbreak-organizations-demand-gavin-newsom-grant-mass-releases\/","title":{"rendered":"As California Prisons Face COVID Outbreak, Organizations Demand Gavin Newsom Grant Mass Releases"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Beeping filled the underpass of Interstate 880 as a caravan of cars made its way onto the San Francisco bound entrance ramp on 7th street in Oakland. The long trail of vehicles blocked all other entrances and exits of the highway, and heavy traffic began to amass in every direction. A man caught at the intersection stuck his arm out of his car window in annoyance. He seemed to be upset that the protest was ruining part of his day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The demonstrators in the caravan were also upset about wasted time. Their family members and loved ones have been forced to spend decades\u201430, 40, sometimes over 50 years\u2014behind the cells of overcrowded state prisons, even during a pandemic that requires social distancing to slow its spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Caravan attendees display a sign stating, \u201cOur loved ones matter.\u201d The caravan drove across the Bay Bridge on Jan. 31, 2021, demanding that Gov. Gavin Newsom grant mass releases due to the rise in COVID-19 deaths in California prisons. Photo: Sean Reyes\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
At least 100 cars made up the caravan, and they were all filled with friends, relatives, children, and spouses of either actively or formerly incarcerated persons. Their demonstration began on the morning of Jan. 31 at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in Oakland, where after a series of speeches, they started their trek towards San Francisco during peak Sunday traffic. Their cars displayed posters with messages like \u201cStop the COVID Executions!,\u201d \u201cCARE NOT CAGES,\u201d and \u201cNEWSOM, STOP KILLING OUR LOVED ONES.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Organizations including No Justice Under Capitalism (NJUC), Critical Resistance (CR), and Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ), came together for the event. The protesters held Gov. Gavin Newsom responsible for COVID related deaths in prisons. They demanded a mass release of incarcerated people, an end to involuntary transfers, and COVID testing for 100 percent of the prison population. California prisons, whose population is nearly 90,000, are facing a dangerous outbreak of the coronavirus. As of Feb. 8, there are 1,922 active COVID cases in the state\u2019s prisons, and there have been at least 199 COVID related deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of Feb. 8, there are 1,922 active COVID cases in the state\u2019s prisons, and there have been at least 199 COVID related deaths.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
This isn\u2019t the first time demonstrators organize against Gov. Newsom\u2019s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in prisons. According to Minister King X, Program Director of California Prison Focus, several organizations informed the governor that incarcerated folk \u201ccould be subjected to die, if not, get critically ill\u201d under current conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Public health officials and federal courts also warned the State last year about an impending outbreak in California prisons. In June 2020, AMEND at UCSF and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health released a memo urging the state to reduce the San Quentin prison population by 50 percent. In October, the First District Court of Appeals in San Francisco decided that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) had violated the 8th Amendment (no cruel and unusual punishment) and that the prison needed to reduce its capacity by 50 percent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Boom Shake music group plays during a rally at Middle Shoreline Harbor Park in Oakland on Jan. 31, 2021, as part of an effort to urge Gov. Newsom to grant mass releases to incarcerated elderly, immunocompromised and trans people during a time when COVID-19 deaths are increasing in California prisons. Photo: Sean Reyes<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
San Quentin\u2019s prison population has not been reduced to that capacity. Instead of following the court\u2019s order, the CDCR began to enact arbitrary prison transfers that resulted in dozens of deaths, according to The Guardian. The Davis Vanguard also reported that inmates who refused to be subjected to these involuntary transfers were pressured to sign liability waivers, making them responsible for their own deaths. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This indifference also comes from prison employees, who are the primary vectors of transmissions in prisons since they come in and out. In October of last year, California\u2019s Office of the Inspector General released a report stating that correctional officers frequently and deliberately refused to wear masks. That same report said that guards faced little to no disciplinary action for breaking COVID protocols. Protesters also expressed first-hand accounts of inmates who were intentionally placed with cellmates known to have COVID. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such was the case for Jay Burton, a 48-year-old citizen who has been in prison for 32 years after being wrongly convicted at 16. According to Courtney Morris, an organizer with NJUC, prison officials refused to put Burton\u2019s cellmate in isolation after being diagnosed with coronavirus on Nov. 30. Two weeks later, Burton himself tested positive. That\u2019s why demonstrators said there was \u201cblood on Newsom\u2019s hands\u201d and that the 200 COVID related deaths in California prisons are effectively \u201cState executions.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The situation is particularly alarming. Nearly a quarter of the California prison population is over 50, and the average age of incarcerated males is almost 40 years old. Many of those elders are sons, fathers, husbands, and brothers that have been jailed for decades, sometimes in solitary confinement. Demonstrators urged the public to see that this many years in prison is inhumane. Minister King says it\u2019s torture, and Nube Brown, Managing Editor of the San Francisco Bayview National Black Newspaper, called it a\u201ccivil death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People display banners during a rally on Jan. 31, 2021, where dozens came together to urge Gov. Newsom to grant mass releases starting with elderly, immunocompromised, and trans prisoners. Photo: Sean Reyes\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
It is widely known that the coronavirus rapidly spreads in socially confined spaces, and California, the state with the second-highest prison population in the country, is notorious for overpopulated prisons. In 2017, the Public Policy Institute of California reported that only two out of California\u2019s 35 prisons were below 100 percent building capacity. Thirteen of those prisons were above 137 percent capacity. So why does the State refuse to grant mass releases of incarcerated people despite that government code section 8658 gives the state the power to do so in cases of \u201can emergency endangering the lives of inmates\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some point to the fact that 91 percent of inmates have been charged with violent or serious crimes. However, experts such as UC Hastings professor Hadar Aviram note that there is no correlation between public safety and the legal system\u2019s distinction between violent and non-violent crimes. Furthermore, a study by the Stanford Criminal Justice Center found that only 0.58 percent of formerly incarcerated people convicted of murderer commit new crimes. And others recall that between 2011 and 2015, when California reduced its prison population by 45,000, there was no uptick in crime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Brown, whether an incarcerated individual has committed a violent crime or not is beside the point. \u201cI challenge people to think from a place of humanity,\u201d she said. \u201cLet\u2019s say that they did commit a \u2018crime\u2019 and are to be held accountable for that: if you cannot rehabilitate someone after [decades] of incarceration, that\u2019s an indictment on the system. [The CDCR] is failing to do their job, and that\u2019s what we need to get to think in our understanding.\u201d For Brown, mass releases need to happen not only because they can and should, but because the CDCR is not fulfilling their rehabilitation claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A plane flies over the caravan on Jan. 31, 2021, stating, \u201cNewsom, free prisoners 2 stop COVID deaths!\u201d Photo: Sean Reyes\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
When asked why she thought Gov. Newsom refuses to grant mass releases, Lia, a protestor and organizer from Sacramento, said that \u201cit comes down to race. It comes down to class. It comes down to the fact that this system was not designed to protect us.\u201d She referred to Black Americans, who make up over 25 percent of the California prison population despite only making up 6 percent of California\u2019s general population. \u201cIt\u2019s about money,\u201d she said, given that six days before the demonstration, Gov. Newsom lifted the most recent shelter in place orders\u2014a decision that is likely to increase COVID transmission rates across the state, while he refuses to grant mass releases\u2014a decision that would likely decrease COVID transmission rates in prisons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s why according to Minister King, it doesn\u2019t stop at demanding mass releases. Organizations like No Justice Under Capitalism, All of Us or None, California Prison Focus, and Critical Resistance also want to take power from the CDCR by becoming the Community Strategic Release Board that oversees the mass releases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
California also has the worst prison to education spending ratio in the country. On average, California spends about $64,500 annually on incarcerated individuals, while it only spends an average of about $11,500 on students in its public school system. Annually, California spends over $8.5 billion to keep nearly 90,000 incarcerated individuals behind bars, while last year, it only provided $75 million in relief funds to undocumented immigrants, even though the state has over 2 million undocumented immigrants that contribute to its economy. Furthermore, 44 percent of the California prison population identifies as Hispanic, meaning that the issue of mass incarceration in California affects many racialized peoples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rally attendees Priya Sawhney (left) and Cassie King (right) hold signs of urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to grant mass releases as the rate of deaths surge in California, Jan. 31, 2021. Photo: Sean Reyes\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Mass incarceration and the COVID crisis within prisons isn\u2019t limited to California. It exists throughout the United States, whose prison population began to skyrocket in the 80s under the Ronald Reagan administration. As of this writing, Gov. Newsom and the CDCR continue to refuse to grant incarcerated people mass releases. Instead, on Feb. 5, the same day that he announced the beginning of Black History Month in California, Gov. Newsom decided to proclaim Feb. 6, 2021, Ronald Reagan Day. The COVID crisis in California prisons remains rampant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Daniel Marquez studies Political Economy at UC Berkeley and is a student researcher at the Latinx Research Center (LRC). <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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