Santa Clara County Jail Conditions Inexcusable; Demand Letter Calls for Improved COVID Protections for Incarcerated People
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 17, 2021
CONTACT: communications@lawfoundation.org
SANTA CLARA – The Law Foundation of Silicon Valley today demanded that Santa Clara immediately improve COVID-19 procedures at its two county jails and provide adequate protections to people who are incarcerated.
A letter sent to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff’s Office outlines constitutional violations as well as the county’s failure to follow best practices recommended by the CDC in both the Elmwood Correctional Facility and the Santa Clara County Main Jail.
“People in jail are highly vulnerable to contagious illnesses,” said Abre’ Conner, Directing Attorney of the Law Foundation’s Health Program. “The county should be working to prevent, manage and treat COVID-19 in its jails, yet Santa Clara has failed to provide even minimally adequate procedures to protect people in jails. The county must immediately take action to prevent needless suffering and death.”
The letter outlines alarming accounts of conditions in the jails. Incarcerated individuals are forced to use “a single cloth or disposable paper mask that is expected to last for months.” The jail provides inadequate hygiene and cleaning supplies, forcing people to live in unsanitary conditions. Social distancing is impossible in bunk beds and crammed and shared spaces. Passenger vans used to travel to and from court “are filled to capacity, leaving only inches between people.” Shackles are not disinfected between uses. Moreover, individuals with mental health disabilities continue to emphasize that their needs are unmet and the jails seem unequipped to ensure resources exist for individuals with mental health disabilities.
The letter also reveals that many corrections officers have masks “hanging around their necks,” and only “half of eligible staff have received the vaccine” due to choice—not availability.
“People who work in prisons play an essential role in reducing the risk of the spread of disease,” said Sol Kim, Patient’s Rights Advocate for the Law Foundation’s Health Program. “They are jeopardizing the safety of others by not taking all of the necessary precautions. These unsafe conditions disproportionately impact Black and Latinx people, who make up most of the jail’s population due to pervasive racial disparities in the criminal justice system.”
The CDC recommends testing every three to seven days, yet incarcerated people in Santa Clara County say they are being tested every two weeks. After testing positive, they say they are “placed in isolation without significant medical attention” and the quarantine areas are “filthy.”
"As a longtime advocate for prisoners human rights in Santa Clara County jails, it's infuriating to know that these types of atrocities are still happening, especially during a pandemic,” said Jose Valle III, Silicon Valley De-Bug organizer. “I hope that the jail administration will be moved to make radical and lasting change so that people will never be housed in such subhuman conditions again."
The letter argues the conditions violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and state-inflicted harm.
At least 584 people in the county jails have contracted COVID-19, with 46 percent of those infections in January of this year. Despite these high infection rates, numerous complaints, and a nine-day hunger strike protesting the jail’s conditions earlier this year, the incarcerated people remain in unsafe and unsanitary environments.
The letter requests a number of remedies including medical-grade masks provided daily, vaccines for incarcerated people living in congregate spaces and staff, enforced social distancing or a reduction in jail population, increased testing, and adequate soap, sanitizer, and cleaning materials.