California prison guards, staff must get COVID-19 vaccine, federal judge rules
LOS ANGELES — A federal judge on Monday ordered that all correctional officers and staff entering California’s prisons be vaccinated.
The judge sided with a federal court-appointed receiver overseeing the medical care there and rejected efforts to block it by Gov. Gavin Newsom and the prison guards union.
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar’s order covers all 34 of California’s prisons and does allow for religious and medical exemptions to be sought by the employees.
“Once the virus enters a facility, it is very difficult to contain, and the dominant route by which it enters a prison is through infected staff,” the judge wrote in his order explaining his reasoning.
Federal receiver J. Clark Kelso warned it was the only way to prevent another deadly outbreak like that at San Quentin that killed 28 inmates and one officer, noting 11 staff members across the state have died of COVID-19 since August.
The Judge also ordered that inmates who want inperson visits or who work outside prisons, including inmate firefighters, must also be fully vaccinated or have a religious or medical exemption.
“All agree that a mandatory staff vaccination policy would lower the risk of preventable death and serious medical consequences among incarcerated persons,” Tigar wrote. “And no one has identified any remedy that will produce anything close to the same benefit.”
An appeal is expected from the correctional officers union, whose attorney during a court hearing Friday hinted that a challenge was likely as they joined state lawyers in opposing the proposal by Kelso.
Tigar on Monday called the state officials’ actions commendable steps but said he is acting “because they refuse to do what the undisputed evidence requires.”
The judge has broad and widespread authority to direct medical care within California prisons under a long-running lawsuit over healthcare provisions.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Newsom has championed some of the nation’s toughest coronavirus restrictions and called for vaccine mandates for all health workers.
But Newsom and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have continued to fight the request to mandate vaccinations for all corrections guards and staff. The department oversees prisons and about 99,000 inmates.
Kelso and his medical staff argue that the virus, which they believe is mostly spread from prison staff, has caused more than 50,000 inmate infections and over 20,000 employees to test positive for the virus. That has resulted in the deaths of 240 inmates statewide and 39 staff members.
“We do really have a problem of continuing major outbreaks,” Kelso told Tigar during a virtual hearing in Oakland. Explaining that the coronavirus has repeatedly spread from staff to the incarcerated, he noted that recently six other states and the federal prison system have mandated vaccines for all prison employees. At the High Desert State Prison in Susanville, California, for example, only 29% of the employees are fully vaccinated.
Newsom’s office last week said the governor has “led California to the lowest transmission rate and highest vaccinations in the nation by following scientific consensus and public health guidelines.”
It points out that California was the first state to mandate vaccination or testing for all its state workers, including correctional employees, and a state order covering health workers being vaccinated covers three medical prisons. Newsom’s office said the state’s public health officer has already ordered employees regularly assigned to provide healthcare services to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 14.
“The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was one of the first state agencies to offer vaccinations to staff, beginning at the end of 2020,” the statement said. “Additionally, California also led the nation in providing early access to vaccines for incarcerated people. Currently, 76% of the incarcerated population has been fully vaccinated, with 56% of staff vaccinated and another 4% have received at least one dose.”