California officials blasted for prison coronavirus outbreak

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers harshly criticized state corrections officials' “failure of leadership” Wednesday, saying they botched their handling of the coronavirus pandemic by inadvertently transferring infected inmates to a virus-free prison, triggering the state’s worst prison outbreak.

A third of the 3,500 inmates at San Quentin State Prison near San Francisco have tested positive since officials transferred 121 inmates from the heavily impacted California Institution for Men in Chino on May 30 without properly testing them for infections.

“I don’t say this lightly, but this is a failure of leadership. This crisis is completely avoidable,” said state Sen. Mike McGuire, who represents the San Quentin area.

The transfer from the stricken prison in Southern California “should have never happened," McGuire said at a Senate oversight hearing. ”And then the virus spread like wildfire,”

Assemblyman Marc Levine, a fellow Democrat who also represents the region, said lawmakers and inmate advocates had been warning everyone from Gov. Gavin Newsom on down since the start of the pandemic that prisons were uniquely vulnerable.

He called the transfer of infected inmates to San Quentin “the worst prison health screw-up in state history."

“We cannot sweep it under the rug. There must be accountability," Levine added. "Never has too little, too late been more true, or cruel.”

Corrections Secretary Ralph Diaz countered that prison officials "have worked tirelessly” to protect inmates statewide.

The department on Tuesday created a command center at San Quentin that includes medical, security, emergency management and infectious disease experts from multiple state agencies, he said.

San Quentin has erected six tents to treat infected...