By Richard Halstead
The Marin Independent Journal
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. — More than 300 inmates are trying to hold San Quentin State Prison to account for a coronavirus outbreak that infected 2,169 prisoners and killed 28 last year.
An unusual evidentiary hearing in Marin County Superior Court this month has brought the prison’s top administrator and other figures to the witness stand. The hearing is in response to stacks of habeas corpus petitions — emergency filings alleging unlawful incarceration under the Eighth Amendment — filed by the inmates.
Ron Broomfield, the acting warden, testified Wednesday about how dire conditions became in the prison during the contagion.
“As the outbreak expanded, we experienced a severe staffing shortage,” he said.
Broomfield said staff members were contracting the disease and having to leave the prison to guard inmates who were being treated at outside hospitals. He said strike teams were deployed from other state prisons to fill the gap.
Broomfield said the prison also had to contract with an outside company to supply food to the prison.
“Our kitchen staff got sick, and we had insufficient staff to produce food,” he said. “We had initially fed the population with some pre-made meals that were unacceptable.”
Under questioning, Broomfield said he didn’t recall reading an urgent memo from a group of doctors at the University of California, San Francisco. The June 13 memo called for cutting the prison population by half to allow for more social distancing.
Khari Tillery, one of the lawyers representing the inmates, asked Broomfield if, given the number of San Quentin inmates who died, he believed the prison had adequately protected the incarcerated population.
“My opinion is pretty complex on that issue,” Broomfield replied. “It is obvious to me that the population at San Quentin was horribly impacted by this pandemic.”
“I’m also aware that the neighboring communities were horribly impacted by this pandemic,” he added. “So my opinion is that anywhere in the world where there are dense populations there is an increased risk of a spread of this pandemic.”
Wednesday was the fifth day of the hearing, which is being overseen by Marin Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Howard. On Friday, the court heard testimony from Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County’s public health officer.
Willis told the court that unlike other providers of medical care in Marin County, San Quentin failed to develop a plan for how it would respond to a COVID-19 outbreak.
The first cases at San Quentin involved some 121 inmates who were transferred there from the California Institution of Men in Chino. The inmates were moved from the Chino prison because a major outbreak was occurring there, and prison officials wanted to clear space.
The inmates who were transferred to San Quentin were considered to be at higher risk for complications because of other health conditions. These inmates were tested prior to the move, but health officials later said the testing did not occur close enough to the transfer date.
Broomfield testified Wednesday that the transferred inmates were screened by San Quentin’s medical staff when they arrived, and two of the inmates appeared symptomatic. They were placed in isolation in the prison’s Adjustment Center. Built in 1960, the 102-cell center normally houses the prison’s most violent inmates.
Broomfield told the court he would have preferred to have housed all of the Chino transfers in the Adjustment Center, since it is the only section of the prison with solid doors to prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, there was not enough room, he said.
Broomfield said inmates housed in the Adjustment Center are serving serious disciplinary terms that “threaten the safety and security of the institution.”
“There were some security concerns for sure about emptying that housing unit,” he said.
Instead, Broomfield said, prison managers decided to house only COVID-positive inmates in the Adjustment Center, relocating prisoners there as needed. He said the two Chino transfers who displayed symptoms were housed in the Adjustment Center immediately.
Broomfield said after one of these inmates tested positive, all 24 of the inmates who rode on the same bus to San Quentin with him were also moved to the Adjustment Center. On June 6, at the recommendation of the prison’s medical staff, another 50 Chino transfers, the occupants of two more buses, were rehoused in the Adjustment Center, he said.
By June 16, the Adjustment Center was full, Broomfield said.
Willis testified that when he learned of the transfer of the Chino inmates on June 1, he recommended that they be kept separate from other prisoners at San Quentin. He also recommended that the prison institute proper use of protective equipment, including N-95 masks, and avoid transferring staff from one unit to another.
Willis said his advice was met with indifference by San Quentin officials.
Prisoner advocates said the inmates are asking the court to make the officials accountable for the massive outbreak and to improve living conditions to prevent a repeat.
“This isn’t just a prison issue. It is a community and public health issue affecting everyone’s constitutional rights,” said Christine O’Hanlon, a deputy public defender in Marin. “The public has the right to know what occurred in San Quentin as part of government transparency.”
(c)2021 The Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.)