COVID at ‘crisis levels’ in Sacramento jails. Lawyers want more inmates vaccinated

Lawyers who once sued Sacramento County over the conditions inside its jails are urging officials to vaccinate more older and medically vulnerable inmates as the number of positive coronavirus cases continues to mount.

In a letter sent Friday to the county officials, Disability Rights California and the Prison Law Office called on them to expand the criteria it is using to order covid-19 vaccinations for inmates to include more people.

The letter was addressed to public health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye, County counsel Rick Heyer, Sandy Damiano, a department of health services employee who oversees health services inside the jail, and Santos Ramos, a chief deputy who oversees correctional services for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.

In the last month, the number of positive COVID-19 cases in county jails has sky-rocketed into the hundreds. The sheriff’s office, which oversees the jails, recorded 993 positive cases since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

According to the letter, 714 of those cases were recorded in the jail’s general population in the last month. “The crisis level of COVID-19 infection in the Jail persists,” the lawyers said.

The county’s public health division is overseeing a limited quantity of vaccines and a daunting number of protocols required to administer them. Given in two doses, the vaccine must be kept at a certain temperature.

The county recently began inoculating inmates who were 65 and older and medically vulnerable inside the Sacramento Main Jail and the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center, according to the legal letter. Some 37 inmates qualified but only 17 were vaccinated because the others were either not sentenced yet or their cases were in pretrial.

It was unclear to health officials whether they would still be inmates in time for the second dose of the vaccine, the lawyers said.

The two organizations sued Sacramento County in 2019 on behalf of several inmates at the jail. The case was certified as a class with inmate Lorenzo Mays as the lead plaintiff. It ended with a consent decree that requires the county to improve the conditions inside its two jails. The agreement was approved by a judge one year ago and the county is still struggling to comply with the hundreds of requirements outlined in a remedial plan.

“Conditions at the jail remain alarming,” the lawyers wrote. “We are hopeful that our concerns can be addressed without (the) need for federal court involvement, but will proceed as necessary to protect the rights and well-being of the Mays class.”

Should all inmates get vaccinated?

The lawyers asked the county to consider vaccinating all inmates who may be vulnerable due to their age, a medical condition, or a disability. They also said it should not matter if a person would remain in custody long enough to receive the second dose.

County officials said in a statement that it plans to start vaccinating inmates whose cases are still in pretrial next week in addition to those who are already sentenced if they meet the age criteria and are in a vulnerable medical condition.

More and more positive cases are being identified every day. On Jan. 20, the sheriff’s office reported 192 inmates were positive for COVID-19 at the main jail downtown and another 114 inmates at the Rio Cosumnes facility in Elk Grove.

The escalating outbreak poses greater harm for some of the people the lawsuit was supposed to protect: inmates with chronic health conditions and disabilities. What’s more, people of color, who make up a disproportionate share of the incarcerated, have been more likely to die from COVID-19 than other groups.

“Even with the considerable efforts of jail health care and custody leadership and staff, Sacramento County Jail facilities remain an epicenter of infections in the County,” the lawyers wrote. “It is well-established that the risk of mass COVID-19 transmission is greatest in crowded, confined spaces with limited ventilation and air circulation. These are just the sort of conditions that exist at the Jail.”