A federal judge on Monday ordered that all employees entering California prisons be vaccinated or have a religious or medical exemption, as he tries to head off a coronavirus outbreak like the one that killed 28 inmates and a correctional officer at San Quentin State Prison last year.
More than 50,000 California inmates have been infected and at least 240 have died since the start of the pandemic.
“All agree that a mandatory staff vaccination policy would lower the risk of preventable death and serious medical consequences among incarcerated persons,” wrote U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar. “And no one has identified any remedy that will produce anything close to the same benefit.”
Tigar has broad authority to direct medical care within California prisons under a long-running lawsuit over poor health care.
“Once the virus enters a facility, it is very difficult to contain, and the dominant route by which it enters a prison is through infected staff,” the judge reasoned.
As of Monday, there were 218 active inmate infections, 129 of them at North Kern State Prison near Bakersfield, California. Wasco State Prison in the same county had 32 infected inmates, but only one other prison has double-digit infections.
Statewide, there were 357 active employee infections; 39 employees have died, including three this month.
Inmates who want in-person visits or who work outside prisons, including inmate firefighters, must also be fully vaccinated or have a religious or medical exemption. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association has said the mandate could create staff shortages if employees refuse to comply.
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