In these times of COVID-19 the inhumane treatment of prisoners is conspicuous. Prison officials, staff, as well as segments of society seem to hold firmly to the belief that the lives of prisoners do not matter. Let us look at three examples.
First, around May 30, 2020, the prisoner population at San Quentin State Prison (SQSP), specifically North and West Blocks, stood just shy of 100% above design capacity, as it had for decades. At that time there was not a single case of COVID-19 at SQSP. Then, prison officials set in motion events that would lead to the infection of SQSP prisoners with COVID-19.
As of August 11, 2020, more than 2,100 SQSP prisoners had been infected with COVID-19, with the death count at 25, according to the KRON-TV. [This story was submitted in August 2020. Read an October report on the outbreak in The New York Times here.]
Remedial steps taken throughout July to promote social distancing included the reduction of the number of prisoners in North Block (NB). But in early August SQSP officials reversed course and in just over one week had repacked NB to nearly 100% above design capacity. Thus, SQSP officials had recreated the same living conditions in NB that existed in June and July which resulted in mass infections and deaths.
It was disastrous to put together NB prisoners who tested positive for COVID-19, prisoners who had resolved their infections, prisoners who remained negative, and those prisoners who simply refused to be tested. In an effort to rationalize this decision, prison officials said that prisoners who had resolved their infections were immune from COVID-19. Although it may be argued that the initial infection of prisoners with COVID-19 was merely the result of negligence and poor decision making, the dire living conditions in NB today are the result of deliberate actions.
Secondly, the poor quality of prison food is to sustain life, nothing more. With COVID-19 out of control, prisoners were for a time provided with nutritious meals prepared by an outside contractor. Sadly, it seems that prison officials bristled at the costs and discontinued those meals. Breakfasts and lunches are now bag meals of the poorest quality. Officials tout dinner meals as hot meals, but they are served on paper trays at room temperature and are unappetizing.
Finally, on August 9, 2020, the NB prisoner population was jolted awake by the announcement over the public address system of the passing of Sergeant Gilbert Polanco due to COVID-19. While we all feel for the passing of the sergeant and his family, friends, and coworkers, one might wonder: why hasn’t a single announcement been made for the 25 prisoners who have died due to COVID-19. No names were shouted out, not a drop of commiseration shown to the prisoner population for their losses.
The lives of prisoners do not matter.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Here are our ground rules:
- You must credit Prison Journalism Project. In the byline, we prefer “[Author Name], Prison Journalism Project.” At the top of the text of your story, please include a line that says: “This story was originally published by Prison Journalism Project” and include a link to the article.
- No republishing of photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission. Please contact inquiries@prisonjournalismproject.org.
- No editing the content, including the headline, except to reflect changes in time, location and editorial style. For example, changing, “today” to “last week,” or San Quentin to San Quentin, California. You can also make minor revisions for style or headline size, and you can trim stories for space. You must also retain all original hyperlinks, including links to the Prison Journalism Project newsletters.
- No translation of our stories into another language without specific permission. Please contact inquiries@prisonjournalismproject.org.
- No selling ads against our stories, but you can publish it on a page with ads that you’ve already sold.
- No reselling or syndicating our stories, including on platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. You also can’t republish our work automatically or all at once. Please select them individually.
- No scraping our website or using our stories to populate websites designed to improve search rankings or gain revenue from network-based advertisements.
- Any site our stories appear on must have a prominent and effective way to contact you.
- If we send you a request to remove our story, you must do so immediately.
- If you share republished stories on social media, please tag Prison Journalism Project. We have official accounts on Twitter (@prisonjourn), Facebook (@prisonjournalism), Instagram (@prisonjournalism) and Linked In.
- Let us know when you share the story. Send us a note, so we can keep track.