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

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

last updated 1 April 2020

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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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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