SAN QUENTIN — The waves of protests that have swept across America reached the shores of the infamous San Quentin State Prison on Sunday as 1,000 people demonstrated against conditions that have led to a public health crisis inside the 275-acre complex.
The grassroots organization No State Execution by COVID-19 and a coalition of prison reform advocates marched Sunday afternoon in Larkspur to denounce what they called the lack of action from Gov. Gavin Newsom and state policymakers as prisoners have suffered the deadly consequence of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“Their mishandling of the pandemic at a time when they shut down the state but didn’t care to mitigate the pandemic within the prison system is a crime,” said Courtney Morris, one of the event organizers.
Demonstrators on Sunday marched from the Larkspur ferry landing down Sir Francis Drake Boulevard to the West Gate of San Quentin prison where they chanted, “Let them go.”
The protest Sunday continued to cast attention on prison conditions and a disastrous state decision to transfer 121 inmates to San Quentin from the California Institute for Men in Chino — a facility already in the midst of an outbreak — on May 30. The men had not been recently tested for COVID-19 leading up to their transfer to San Quentin.
In less than two months, 19 San Quentin inmates have died, including at least eight on Death Row. The San Quentin toll represents 40 percent of all COVID-19-related deaths among state prisoners, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation database. The state agency did not report any new deaths on its website Sunday.
Officials say about two-thirds of the San Quentin prison population — 2,184 incarcerated people — have contracted the disease, with another 258 staff infected. But the numbers do not include some prisoners who refused to get tested.
Protesters have demonstrated outside Newsom’s house near Sacramento, demanding that the governor use his executive power to free prisoners at risk of catching the illness. They say conditions inside California’s oldest prison are ripe for spreading novel coronavirus.
The overcrowded 168-year-old facility on the edge of San Francisco Bay between Larkspur and the Richmond Bridge has poor ventilation, prisoners have said.
“These institutions are built to be death camps,” said Morris, 34. “They are not built to rehabilitate.”
San Quentin, the first of California’s 36 state prisons, has faced questions about practices for decades. Agency officials said on their website that the nature of prison setups poses “significant challenges” to handling a highly contagious disease.
“While measures such as mandating the use of cloth face coverings, providing increased hygiene and disinfecting supplies, and finding alternate housing sites such as gyms and chapels has greatly slowed the spread, we must continue to decompress the population in order to achieve adequate physical distancing,” a prison bureau statement said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
