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All but nine of California’s 35 prisons house more people than the facility was designed to hold.
Prisoners are reluctant to report when they’re feeling sick, because they know they’ll be sent to solitary confinement.
John Wesley Parratt Jr. was scheduled to appear before the parole board in July. After the novel coronavirus arrived in San Quentin State Prison, he feared for his health.
With programming paused and prison jobs reduced, people inside will not be able to earn good-time credits and are cut off from a means of supporting themselves.
“They are treating it like any epidemic in prison—that is to isolate, treat and then release back to the population.”
Prisoners avoid admitting they are sick because they don’t want to be put in solitary, so nurses go cell to cell to take their temperatures.