SAN DIEGO, CA –The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported that an attack on corrections officers left officers, correctional staff, and at least two inmates hurt on August 16th.
Authorities report that at least twenty inmates at the Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility were in the recreation yard when an unknown number of them began attacking the officers. Officials released no possible reason for the attack, but say it occurred just before 4pm on Sunday.
Six prison guards are stabbed and left with broken bones after being attacked by a mob of inmates in the recreation yard at a San Diego jail
The correctional officers at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego were set upon by the inmates at around 4pm on Sunday pic.twitter.com/elj5oM5OZO— Pakistan Hur Mujahid (@HurPakistan) August 17, 2020
Officers gave several warnings for the inmates to stop their attack, but all orders were ignored. Other officers began deploying less-lethal measures which had no effect in slowing or stopping the inmates. The Department stated that another correctional officer fired a warning shot which stopped the fight.
Medical staff treated the inmates and the correctional staff at the facility except for two who had to be transported to the hospital for treatment of their injuries. Six of the officers suffered from stab wounds, cuts, and possibly had broken bones as a result of the attack.
Officers who searched the area after the attack located several weapons according to prison officials. The prison declined to identify what weapons were located or the names of the injured officers. They did say that the two officers that are in the hospital are there with what appears to be non-life-threatening injuries.
On 08/17/20, the prison identified four people whom they arrested in connection with the attack on the correctional officers. The four were identified as:
Joe Mendez came into the prison after a transfer from Orange county. Mendez is serving 52-year to life for first-degree murder. His prison sentence was enhanced under the Street Gang Act and because he had intentionally discharged a firearm while causing great bodily harm.
Luis Delgado, taken into the prison after being transferred from Fresno County. Delgado is serving 13 years for assault with a semi-automatic firearm. He also had a sentence enhancement under the Street Gang act.
Michael Figueroa transferred to the prison from Orange County. Figueroa is serving a 10-year sentence for attempted voluntary manslaughter, also with the enhancement of the Street Gang Act.
William Barba, who transferred from Los Angeles County into the prison. Barba is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.
While the investigators have not released what charges the above named person face, it is believed they will be charged with attempted first degree murder of a peace officer. All of the inmates involved in the prison riot will be held in the Administrative Segregation Unit.
According to ABC10 San Diego, protests at Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility are nothing new. They report that almost a year ago, five inmates were injured during a riot that involved almost 80 different inmates. In that riot, officers also gave several commands for the inmates to stop fighting which were ignored.
[embedded content]
Correctional officers fired less-lethal munitions into the crowd which ultimately stopped the fight. CDCR reported finding at least four inmate-made weapons at the scene of the fight.
Five of the inmates who were injured had to be transported to a hospital for medical treatment. Some of the reported injuries involved stab wounds, cuts, and bruises to the head, neck and body.
Previous to that report, inmates were stabbed in a fight where the victim was outnumbered 7-1. Also, in 2019, there was another fight involving 50 inmates which left 10 prisoners injured.
The online prison reports show 204 uses of force that were reported in 2019. Meaning there were 204 times correctional officers had to use force against inmates. Donovan State Prison houses over 3,500 inmates.
This is the point where we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that around 8,000 inmates could be eligible for release in the state of California by the end of August.
This comes as California has already reduced the state’s inmate population by about 10,000 inmates since Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in March, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said.
Rather than comforting the public in regards to this risky move, the secretary of the agency, Ralph Diaz, wrote a letter that included an apology to the criminals for the “significant burden you and your families continue to bear.”
If Newsom’s so concerned about slowing infections, shouldn’t he keep infected inmates away from the rest of us?
“California freeing 18,000 prisoners for public ‘health and safety’ / Officials contend release will ‘slow’ COVID-19” https://t.co/8QHvQzZimG#corrupt #recallnewsom pic.twitter.com/VmxLYAyjvN
— SaveCalifornia.com (@savecalifornia) July 17, 2020
The letter included no apologies to the victims of these offenders.
The corrections agency announcement also apologizes the “unnecessarily incarcerated”:
“The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) announced today additional actions to protect its most vulnerable population and staff from COVID-19, and to allow state prisons to maximize available space to implement physical distancing, isolation, and quarantine efforts.
The department estimates up to 8,000 currently incarcerated persons could be eligible for release by end of August under these new measures, further decompressing facilities.”
Jay Jordan, Executive Director of Californians for Safety and Justice said:
“We’re glad the Governor is taking action to release more people. This is absolutely critical for the health and safety of every Californian. Too many people are incarcerated for too long in facilities that spread poor health.
Supporting the health and safety of all Californians means releasing people unnecessarily incarcerated and transforming our justice system.”
The CDCR estimates that 4,800 people could be eligible for release by the end of July. In order to be eligible, incarcerated persons must meet the following criteria:
- Have 180 days or less to serve on their sentence
- Are not currently serving time for domestic violence or a violent crime as defined by law
- Have no current or prior sentences that require them to register as a sex offender under Penal Code 290
- Not have an assessment score that indicates a high risk for violence
According to the CDCR, of the state’s approximate 115,000 inmates, approximately 2,400 prisoners have tested positive for the coronavirus, and at least 31 prisoners have died from COVID-19 related illnesses – accounting for roughly 2 percent and 0.026 percent, respectively, of the inmate population.
Letting 8,000 criminals out of prison early is NOT the way to deal with COVID-19! https://t.co/ZPJTBu12U4
— Brian W. Jones (@SenBrianJones) July 14, 2020
According to UCLA School of Law’s Prison Law & Policy Program, more than 17,000 inmates in the state’s prison system are considered high risk.
A joint study conducted by UCLA and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, concludes that prison inmates test positive for COVID-19 at a rate 5.5 times higher than that of the general public.
Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered all residents to wear masks and face coverings. Interestingly enough, the order does not include prison inmates despite the CDCR aiming to reduce the spread of COVID-19 within prisons.
While applauded by many prisoner advocates and those on the left, Newsom’s decision to release more prisoner has its share of critics.
Vern Pierson, the district attorney in Northern California’s El Dorado County, called it “concerning” for public safety, and said the criteria the prison system will use to decide which inmates to release remains unclear.
They’re defunding the police and releasing inmates. Wake up, America.https://t.co/mI5FzJ76VC
— LawEnforcementToday (@LawEnforceToday) July 13, 2020
The Newsom administration also has not made clear whether crime victims and prosecutors will be given notice when an inmate is released or if they will be able to file objections, said Pierson, who serves as president of the California District Attorneys Association.
Pierson went on to say:
“We don’t know what the actual impact of this is going to be. We do know that it’s a high likelihood there will be significant increases in crime.”
Pierson claimed that because of changes made to California’s criminal justice system in recent years — including the release of many offenders whose crimes weren’t considered violent — those still in state prisons tend to be the most serious offenders.
He said:
“It’s inescapable that it’s the most dangerous people that are the people that are left in prison.”
In the midst of a crime wave, what do liberal governors do? Why of course, they release more criminals back onto the streets. In California, NPR is reporting that far-left Governor Gavin Newsom is planning to release an additional 8,000 prisoners this summer to help “control the spread” of the coronavirus in prison facilities.
The plan was announced after just over a third of inmates and staff at San Quentin State Prison tested positive for COVID-19.
[embedded content]
According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, anyone eligible for release will be tested for the virus within seven days of their release from detention.
According to the department’s secretary the “actions are taken to provide for the health and safety of the incarcerated population and staff,” Ralph Diaz said in a statement on Friday.
“We aim to implement these decompression measures in a way that aligns both public health and public safety.”
Newsom said last Tuesday that the outbreak was a “deep area of focus and concern,” according to Breitbart News. San Quentin had over half of the coronavirus cases of the total throughout the state, which has a total prison population of approximately 113,000.
In the past two weeks, California has seen a rise of more than 860 cases, for a total caseload among inmates standing at 5,841 cases. It is reported that an additional 1,222 employees have been affected. Current caseloads are 2,286 active cases among the prison population with 719 active cases among Corrections staff. Thirty-one inmates have died from COVID-19.
NPR said that around half of the inmates could be released this month. The department is currently looking at prisoners who have less than 180 days left to serve on their bids. It is estimated that roughly 4,800 inmates could be eligible for release by the end of this month.
There are criteria that must be met in order for an inmate to be considered for release—they cannot be incarcerated relative to a domestic violence or other violent crime, and those subject to registration as sex offenders will also not be considered.
I spoke to Newsom’s team to ensure that this inmate release prioritizes low risk, medically vulnerable inmates that are not serving sentences for serious, violent, domestic violence or sex crimes. This release is one of many steps to fix this broken system https://t.co/S80EKMPj77
— Assemblymember Marc Levine (@AsmMarcLevine) July 10, 2020
San Quentin had actually escaped the first two months of the pandemic with no COVID cases, however that number has spiked recently. The outbreak at San Quentin has been attributed to a transfer of more than 100 inmates from the California Institution for Men in Chino, which is another crowded institution that had already reported hundreds of COVID cases.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that most of those inmates had not been adequately tested prior to being transferred to San Quentin.
Spokesmen for the department said that some inmates at both San Quentin and Chino would be now eligible for early release. They said that prisoners who meet its criteria, have a year or less remaining on their sentence and are incarcerated at “institutions that house large populations of high-risk patients” would be considered first.
INMATE RELEASE: The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced today that around 8,000 inmates will be released by the end of August to help combat the spread of COVID-19.https://t.co/PUBpEz7wOx
— KGET 17 News (@KGETnews) July 10, 2020
Folsom State Prison and five additional facilities are included in the program, with inmates who are 30 and older and meet eligibility requirements “immediately eligible for release,” the department said. Younger inmates will be subject to a case-by-case analysis.
The department said that it has already secured the release of over 10,000 inmates since mid-March when the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the U.S.
NBC Bay Area reported that a letter was sent to inmates on Thursday notifying them that eligible inmates would be receiving a sentence credit effective Aug. 1, with releases expected shortly afterward.
“This is absolutely critical for the health and safety of every Californian. Too many people are incarcerated for too long in facilities that spread poor health,” said Jay Jordan, executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice in a statement.
The decision to release inmates came just a few days after the prison system’s chief medical officer was replaced in response to criticism that transfers within the system helped exacerbate the outbreak of COVID in state facilities, CBS News said.
In a news conference earlier this past week, Newsom said that inmates from Chino “should not have been transferred” to San Quentin in late May.
Anne Irwin, director of a non-profit advocacy group Smart Justice California credited Newsom for the move which she said, “will protect the lives of people living and working inside prisons and in surrounding communities.”
“We applaud the Governor for working on two crucial fronts: getting the most vulnerable people out of harm’s way and stemming the spread of COVID-19 inside prisons and neighboring communities,” she said in a statement.
Want to make sure you never miss a story from Law Enforcement Today? With so much “stuff” happening in the world on social media, it’s easy for things to get lost.
Make sure you click “following” and then click “see first” so you don’t miss a thing! (See image below.) Thanks for being a part of the LET family!
