Vague testing guidelines, faulty thermometers and inadequate staff training may have contributed to the COVID-19 outbreak in California prisons that has killed at least 54 inmates and sickened more than 9,500 others, the state’s Office of Inspector General reported Monday.
“Without properly functioning equipment and adequate training, the screening process was certainly compromised, and the risk of infected staff entering the prisons, thereby exposing others, could have increased,” the report noted.
In addition to onsite visits to prisons, the inspector general surveyed 12,000 corrections staff members and found “mixed results.” The vast majority of staffers said they were always screened when entering the prisons, but an average of 5% said they were not.
“In addition, according to our review of a sample of screeners’ training records and our survey of screeners themselves, many screeners apparently received no formal training at all concerning their prisons’ screening processes, thus increasing the risk of allowing infected individuals to walk into prison facilities and expose others to the disease,” the report noted.
It said that “numerous screeners also identified multiple instances of thermometers malfunctioning during screenings,” registering inaccurate temperatures — or none at all — because of battery malfunctions.
It was unclear in those cases if the screeners then turned away the insufficiently tested staff and visitors or allowed them to enter the prisons anyway, the report said.
The inspector general’s findings highlight additional failures by corrections officials to prevent the spread of infections through the state’s massive prison system. Recent criticism has focused on the ill-fated transfer in late May of 121 inmates from a coronavirus-ridden prison in Chino to San Quentin, triggering an outbreak there that has killed at least 25 inmates and sickened more than 2,000 others.
The inspector general’s report, which focused on coronavirus screening of prison staff and visitors, also criticized California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials for withholding key tracking information from the inspector general for months, hampering the watchdog’s investigation.
In a letter to Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, who requested the investigation in April, Inspector General Roy W. Wesley said that corrections officials had relented on the release of the information and now agreed to provide it “as soon as possible.”
“Nevertheless, the decision to initially withhold the information we requested remains a concern,” Wesley wrote. “The department’s decision to change course at this point does not alleviate the adverse effect its initial decision had on our ability to fulfill our mission.”
