RSO ordered to draft plan for county jail healthcare conditions during coronavirus pandemic
Central District of California Chief Judge Virginia A. Phillips ordered the Riverside County Sheriff's Department to meet with prison advocates and draft a plan that meets agreed-upon conditions for healthcare in the county's jails.
This comes after Judge Phillips ruled that the Sheriff's Department failed to answer questions about the conditions in its jails during the coronavirus pandemic.
As of April 16, there are 103 inmates who have tested positive for coronavirus. Two deputies died of coronavirus at the start of the month. One of those two deputies, Deputy Terrell Young was most recently assigned to the Cois Byrd Detention Center.
The plaintiff, Prison Law Office, says the coronavirus is particularly dangerous in correctional settings and it is impossible to adhere to physical distancing in many of the "crowded dormitories in the County’s jails."
"Living conditions in the jails, with large dormitories so crowded that
people sleep on the floor, make it impossible to practice physical distancing and set the stage for a disastrous spread of the virus. In addition, the jails lack medical settings necessary to treat COVID-19 patients with serious complications, so all such patients must be sent to outside hospitals, which already face a potentially overwhelming influx of patients," read the Memorandum of Points and Authorities by the plantiff's attoneys.
News Channel 3's Jake Ingrassia will breakdown the lawsuit tonight at 10 p.m. on Fox and 11 p.m. on News Channel 3.
Attorneys for Prison Law Office suggested moving inmates to fix the overcrowding. One suggestion involved opening the much delayed John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio.
The center was originally set to be completed on December 21, 2017, but has run into numerous delays over two years.
A spokesperson for the construction company says the delays are due to "significant unforeseen design and structural revisions to fire and life safety systems."
The last update was that the target date to have the jail operational was May 19, 2020.
