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Despite statements to the contrary from a county supervisor, it’s not yet clear what impact an appeals court order to California to reduce San Quentin’s inmate population will have on the state prison in Del Norte’s backyard.

District 1 Supervisor Roger Gitlin said Pelican Bay State Prison warden James Robertson told him and other members of a citizens advisory committee on Oct. 21 that he expected 20-30 San Quentin inmates to be transferred to his facility.

Gitlin’s Oct. 22 Facebook announcement came two days after a three-judge panel from California's First District Court of Appeals ruled that the Bay Area facility can house no more than 1,775 inmates following a COVID-19 outbreak that infected more than 2,200 prisoners and killed 28.

Gitlin, who is the county representative on that advisory committee, reiterated the conversation he and committee members had with Robertson at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting.

But, according to Lt. Kenny Price, PBSP’s public information officer, the actual conversation didn’t occur the way Gitlin presented it. Though Gitlin asked Robertson about inmate reduction at San Quentin, the warden did not say he anticipated 20 to 30 transfers to Pelican Bay, Price told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Thursday.

“(Robertson) basically made the statement that we could always get inmates, our Level II houses this many inmates, we could get a handful of inmates and we moved on from it,” Price said, adding that he was present during the advisory committee meeting. “The question was initiated from Mr. Gitlin to the boss — ‘with them closing down, are you getting them?’ It wasn’t confirmed that the state has told us we were getting inmates. It was more of a hypothetical question that was answered in an open matter as far as, ‘Yeah, we could possibly get inmates.’ Have they told us we’re getting them? No, absolutely not.”

On Wednesday, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Deputy Press Secretary Terry Thornton said the department hasn’t made any decisions in response to the 1st District Court of Appeals ruling.

“Any information stating that inmates will be transferred to Pelican Bay State Prison is not accurate,” she told the Outpost via email.

A total of 560 CDCR inmates statewide are currently infected with the novel coronavirus, according to the department’s Population COVID-19 Tracking web page. Four-hundred and fifty-five inmates were released from CDCR custody while still infected, according to the web page.

There are a total of 14,690 cases resolved and 77 deaths statewide, according to CDCR’s web page.

In the Oct. 20 ruling, First District Appellate Court Judge P.J. Kline noted that in addition to the 2,200 infected inmates, 298 San Quentin staff have contracted the novel coronavirus and one has died. The three-judge panel ruled the petitioner, Ivan Von Staich, a 64-year-old inmate incarcerated for 2nd degree murder and attempted murder, be transferred to a “CDCR facility that is able to provide the necessary physical distancing and other measures to protect against COVID-19, or to another placement meeting these criteria.”

The appellate court panel also ordered CDCR to reduce the San Quentin inmate population to no more than 1,775 by expediting release programs to include inmates over 60 years old or who have served at least 25 years of their sentences and are eligible for parole.

“Given the gravity of the emergency at San Quentin, the speed at which transmission of the coronavirus may take place in its outdated facilities, and the ease with which it appears respondents can modify their existing policies and programs to expedite releases and transfers in accordance with the views we have expressed, this decision shall be final in this court 15 days from the date it is filed,” Kline stated.

Though Pelican Bay State Prison has reported its first inmate COVID-19 case Wednesday, in his report before his colleagues Tuesday, Gitlin noted that it was one of two CDCR facilities whose prisoners were healthy.

Gitlin reported Tuesday that staff coronavirus cases at Pelican Bay have been minimal compared to other CDCR institutions.

A total of 39 employees at Pelican Bay State Prison reported they had tested positive for COVID-19, though there are currently no active cases, according to CDCR’s COVID-19 Employee Status web page.

When asked to respond to Thornton’s statement that CDCR hasn’t yet made any decisions about the Appellate Court’s ruling, Gitlin said,  “It can’t be ignored that a major article came out” — referring to media coverage surrounding the ruling.

“I will tell you in my conversations with Warden Robinson, he says (San Quentin’s) an old institution,” Gitlin told the Outpost. “It’s fraught with problems because it’s such an old facility. They’re never going to be able to fix the COVID-19 problem there. They’re going to always have reinfections.”

Gitlin said he expects those CDCR will transfer the healthy San Quentin prisoners to other facilities.

“They’re going to have to do something with the infection issue and those not infected will have to be transferred to a facility that does not have rampant problems,” he told the Outpost. “There’s no question Pelican Bay does not have a COVID-19 problem…. But if they haven’t made that decision yet — we’re just anticipating — they’re going to have to do something.”

CDCR confirmed Thursday that on PBSP inmate tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, though spokesperson Terri Hardy said she wasn't able to provide additional information to protect the individual’s medical privacy.

According to Hardy, Pelican Bay followed protocols outlined in CDCR’s Patient Movement Matrix, including implementing a 14-day quarantine for prisoners that have left the facility and testing and screening them multiple times during that period.

Inmates who test positive are subject to contact tracing by CDCR nursing staff. Those who test negative are returned to general population following the 14-day quarantine.

“PBSP has designated housing areas for both isolation and quarantine, as approved by the court-appointed Federal Receiver,” Hardy said via email.

PBSP continues to test both inmates and staff in accordance with the California Department of Public Health.

Documents:

• First District Appeals Court Ruling

• CDCR Patient Movement Matrix

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