Three California legislators renewed a demand for answers from the Bureau of Prisons amid questions about how the federal agency has handled COVID-19 preparations, saying some correctional officers sleep in vehicles to avoid infecting their families.
Congressman Salud Carbajal along with Senators Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein this week sent a second letter to BOP Director Michael Carvajal to express concerns about the growing outbreak at the Lompoc Federal Correctional Complex and the agency’s efforts to mitigate the crisis.
“While we are grateful the BOP is moving forward with establishing a mobile hospital as we had requested, we are writing to you today to continue stressing the need for the BOP to move with urgency in establishing this facility with the necessary staff and equipment—including ventilators,” the lawmakers said.
Last week, the trio sent a letter urging quick response on setting up a mobile field hospital and ensuring measures for the safety and well-being of law enforcement officers, staff, and inmates.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Lompoc federal prisons has 99 inmates who had tested positive along with 29 staff members. One inmate has died.
“We recently heard that Lompoc USP is still not receiving sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE). We are also troubled to hear the BOP has not implemented a plan to protect its correctional officers and staff, who are also being exposed to COVID-19,” the letter says.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other medical experts have said asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic individuals can transmit the disease to others.
“As a result of this, many law enforcement personnel and other workers within the Lompoc USP are reportedly sleeping in their cars to avoid the potential transmission of the disease to their loved ones at home,” lawmakers said. “These public servants continuously put their lives on the lines and deserve better.”
In addition to expressing concerns, the lawmakers also asked about the timeline for the mobile hospital, including progress to secure staff and equipment and how BOP has worked with stakeholders to develop a contingency plan to ensure local resources aren’t overwhelmed.
Other questions centered on a 14-day quarantine plan for inmates to be released, asking if the measures were employed with Efrem Stutson, who landed in the hospital hours after his release and died days later.
The second letter from lawmakers to BOP came as Sheriff’s Lt. Brian Olmstead said the county had its first conference call with the prison staff and the California Office of Emergency Services on April 11, and the plan was developed for the BOP to build a field hospital at the site to avoid overwhelming local hospitals with COVID-19 patients.
Plans call for an old factory on prison grounds to be converted, with office areas turned into isolation rooms, he added.
That facility will house about 20 patients. The second phase involves a much larger, congregate setting with 60-80 beds, Olmstead said.
The BOP contracted with Aspen Medical, which is getting equipment and staff transported to Lompoc, Olmstead said.
The timeline for when the first beds will be ready to accept patients or when the larger facility will be finished remains murky, but the Army Corps of Engineers is involved.
The Lompoc Federal Correctional Complex includes two prisons plus minimum-security camps housing more than 2,700 male inmates across the site.
As of the weekend, the BOP had reported positive cases for inmates at both the low-security FCI and medium-security USP.
In a letter to inmates’ family and friends, BOP Director Carvajal on Tuesday wrote that “no amount of preparation could have left our institutions unaffected.”
The letter claims that inmates will be confined to cells or quarters in an effort to stem the spread, with that measure expected to remain in effect until at least May 18.
“Again, we did not make this decision lightly, and I know it can be difficult for everyone. But just like in communities nationwide who have been required to shelter in place, we feel the safest course to prevent the spread of the virus is to have inmates shelter in place as well.”
A new measure calls for feeding all inmates in their units, Carvajal said. He also claimed staff and inmates have been issued masks and encouraged to wear them.
Local officials have been concerned that an outbreak could overwhelm hospitals in the county.
Olmstead said the prison’s disease control unit staff members were trying to trace where the outbreak started.
Meanwhile, the whole facility is on lockdown and prison leaders have restricted movement of inmates and staff and conduct temperature checks of employees as they arrive, according to Olmstead.
At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino asked why the prison has an outbreak while the Santa Barbara County Jail has one case.
“Early on, SBSO started a very strict process of trying to control and prevent COVID-19 from coming into the facility,” Olmstead said. “Inmates when booked were placed in a quarantine location for at least two weeks where they were monitored, and after that two weeks they’re checked again and then moved to a different part of the facility.”
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.