As coronavirus spreads in prisons, California to release 3,500 inmates early

In order to reduce crowding at its state prisons and slow down the spread of coronavirus, California is granting early release to 3,500 inmates within the next several weeks.

The inmates are serving terms for nonviolent crimes and were already set to be released over the next 60 days. There are 35 prisons in California, and COVID-19 cases have been reported at 10 locations, affecting 22 workers and four inmates, the Los Angeles Times reports. Visitors are no longer allowed into the prisons, and volunteer programs have been shut down.

Attorneys representing inmates in civil rights litigation have asked for more releases and increased safety measures for older inmates and those with underlying medical conditions during the pandemic. When inmates experience flu-like symptoms, their cell blocks go into lockdown, the Times reports. One woman whose father is at the California Institution for Men in Chino, where one inmate and 11 employees have tested positive for COVID-19, said he "feels like he's in a Nazi Germany death camp."

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The father said he's locked in "the 'sick dorm' and are only taking guys out with a high fever," the woman said. "An inmate in his dorm of 150 men just tested positive, so they put his entire dorm on lockdown. He can't get bandages he needs for open sores from an autoimmune disease. He's 72 and due out in August." Read more at The Los Angeles Times.