Protesters march against prison conditions
Demonstrators outside San Quentin demand action as coronavirus spreads and kills inside
SAN QUENTIN » The waves of protests that have swept across America reached the shores of the infamous San Quentin State Prison on Sunday as about 1,000 people demonstrated against conditions that have led to a public health crisis inside the 275-acre complex.
The grassroots organization No State Execution by COVID-19 and a coalition of prison reform advocates marched Sunday afternoon in Larkspur to denounce what they called the lack of action from Gov. Gavin Newsom and state policymakers as prisoners have suffered the deadly consequence of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“Their mishandling of the pandemic at a time when they shut down the state but didn’t care to mitigate the pandemic within the prison system is a crime,” said Courtney Morris, one of the protest organizers.
Demonstrators marched about a mile from the Larkspur ferry landing down Sir Francis Drake Boulevard to the West Gate of San Quentin prison, where they chanted, “Let them go.”
The protest continued to cast attention on prison conditions and a disastrous state decision to transfer 121 inmates to San Quentin from the California Institute for Men in Chino — a facility already in the midst of an outbreak — on May 30. The men had not been recently tested for the coronavirus leading up to their transfer to San Quentin.
In less than two months, 19 San Quentin inmates have died, including at least eight on death row.
The San Quentin toll represents 40% of all COVID-19-related deaths among state prisoners, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation database. The state agency did not report any new deaths on its website Sunday.
Officials say about two-thirds of the San Quentin prison population — 2,184 incarcerated people — have contracted the virus,
along with 258 staff members. The numbers do not include some prisoners who have refused to get tested.
Two prisoners spoke to the crowd Sunday through phone calls from their families that were broadcast over a speaker system.
“They brought this on themselves,” inmate Charles Sydney said of the outbreak. “They brought people here so we could catch it. With this pandemic going on, it sure feels like I’m on death row.”
Protesters have demonstrated outside Newsom’s house near Sacramento, demanding
that the governor use his executive power to free prisoners at risk of becoming ill. They say conditions inside California’s oldest prison are ripe for spreading the coronavirus.
The overcrowded 168-year-old facility on the edge of San Francisco Bay between Larkspur and the Richmond Bridge has poor ventilation, prisoners have said. The prisoners who spoke Sunday said they aren’t getting warm meals during the crisis. They also denounced the lack of medical care.
“These institutions are built to be death camps,” said protest organizer Morris, 34. “They are not built to rehabilitate.”
San Quentin, the first of
California’s 36 state prisons, has faced questions about practices for decades. Agency officials said on their website that the nature of prison setups poses “significant challenges” to handling a highly contagious disease.
“While measures such as mandating the use of cloth face coverings, providing increased hygiene and disinfecting supplies, and finding alternate housing sites such as gyms and chapels has greatly slowed the spread, we must continue to decompress the population in order to achieve adequate physical distancing,” a prison bureau statement said.
About 35 corrections officers stood guard beyond the gate as demonstrators
shouted slogans and tried talking to them about their incarcerated husbands and fathers.
“San Quentin is bad air,” former inmate Luis Talamantez told the crowd. “It’s a bad vortex. Nothing good ever happens here.”
Talamantez is known as part of the San Quentin Six who were accused of participating in an escape attempt in 1971 that left six people dead, including inmate and author George Jackson. Talamantez and two others were found not guilty of various charges.
Morris said No State Execution by COVID-19 started April 24 in response to the health crisis in state prisons. She said advocacy groups such as California
Prison Focus, the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Oscar Grant Committee have joined forces to address the crisis but also broader issues of prison reform.
The milelong march next to the Corte Madera Channel looked and sounded like a Mardi Gras parade, with a marching band and choreographed chants. Morris said it was the group’s fifth staged protest at San Quentin.
Jessica and Jesse Hurtado of Concord said they represented the Brown Beret National Organization, which has been part of social justice protests for a half-century.
“If police on the streets are openly killing people,
imagine what they would be doing behind walls when the public doesn’t see,” Jessica Hurtado said.
A group called We Are Their Voices has announced rallies Thursday at Soledad State Prison south of Salinas and Saturday at the Sierra Conservation Center in Jamestown.
Natia Woodfork, a VTA bus driver from San Jose, said the protests won’t stop until lawmakers release way more than the 8,000 prisoners Newsom has promised to let out.
“They are freaking human beings like you and me,” said Woodfork, whose husband, Ray Woodfork, is in Soledad State Prison. “Even if I have to go every day, I will be heard.”