California prisoners protest against transfer as COVID-19 cases skyrocket

San Francisco, December 11 (RHC)-- In the U.S. state of California, coronavirus cases inside prisons have once again skyrocketed with more than 4,000 active infections among prisoners — the highest number since the pandemic began. 

According to reports, more than 22,000 prisoners have tested positive for COVID-19 in California, and at least 90 have died.  Prisoners at San Quentin say authorities are preparing to transfer people to other prisons despite COVID-19 levels being at an all-time high. 

Award-winning incarcerated journalist Juan Moreno Haines spoke with reportes from San Quentin: “The problem with the transfer is all California prisons are enclosed and unventilated.  All throughout the state, our leaders are telling us to stay at home, don’t mingle with people that you don’t know, wear a mask inside — and which we’re all doing that inside of these buildings.  But I know we can’t be operating on alternative facts when it comes to enclosed, unventilated buildings.  We can’t have one set of rules for restaurants, gyms, nail salons, etc., and another for prisons.”

In related news from New Jersey, dozens of activists have been leading daily protests outside Bergen County Jail for two weeks in solidarity with immigrant prisoners held at the facility who have been on hunger strike for nearly one month. 

Immigration rights advocates report that at least four of the six hunger strikers had been taken to the emergency room unconscious.  The hunger strikers are demanding better health and safety conditions, and the release of all prisoners during the COVID-19 pandemic.