State fights order to transfer inmates at risk of valley fever
Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration has rejected an order from the court-appointed manager of state prison health care to transfer 3,300 inmates from San Joaquin Valley prisons where they are at risk of valley fever.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a court filing Monday evening that the directive was vague, premature and legally unauthorized.
Authorities at Pleasant Valley and Avenal state prisons have been working to remove inmates who are particularly vulnerable to the sometimes-fatal disease and to educate and protect the remaining inmates, state lawyers said.
They said state officials “have taken and continue to take all necessary steps to abate the risk,’’ and there is no need for a large-scale transfer order.
The dispute now heads for the court of U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco, who has scheduled a hearing for June 17. J. Clark Kelso, a Henderson appointee who directs health care in state prisons, told the state on April 29 to remove the inmates immediately, but has no power to enforce his order.
Kelso’s directive covered all African Americans and Filipinos and all prisoners over age 55 at Pleasant Valley and Avenal, as well as those with immune system deficiencies — 40 percent of the 8,300 inmates at the two prisons. He said the state’s efforts to protect them from the disease have been ineffectual.
Valley fever is a fungal disease caused by inhaling spores from infected soil that is prevalent in the southern San Joaquin Valley.
Kelso’s office has reported that 62 prisoners from throughout the state died between 2006 and January 2013 after coming down with valley fever, and that African Americans and Filipinos are particularly vulnerable to the lethal form of the disease.
The state’s court filing said it has been removing high-risk inmates from the two prisons since 2007, has taken steps to control dust and has posted signs and distributed pamphlets at the prisons warning of the dangers.
The filing also argued that Kelso’s directive to transfer the inmates was a “prisoner release order’’ — something only a three-judge court can issue, in limited circumstances — and was premature because federal health officials have now agreed to study the problem.
Donald Specter, a lawyer for inmates who have sued the state over health care, said Tuesday the state’s response showed that “they won’t protect prisoners unless they’re forced to by a court.’’