Federal judge says health risk posed by fungus is enough to move inmates in 2 Calif. prisons
Posted June 24, 2013 9:54 pm.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A federal judge on Monday ordered the state to move several thousand inmates out of two California prisons because they are at a high risk of contracting a potentially deadly airborne fungus.
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson instructed corrections officials to transfer most black, Filipino and medically at-risk inmates because they are more vulnerable to health problems from valley fever. The fungal infection originates in the soil of the San Joaquin Valley, where Avenal and Pleasant Valley state prisons are located.
He gave the state 90 days to fully comply.
About 3,250 of the two prisons’ 8,100 inmates fall into the categories covered by the judge’s ruling. But Henderson said inmates among those groups who already have had the disease do not have to be moved.
He also altered the recommendation from the court-appointed official who oversees prison medical care to exclude inmates over age 55, although that category of inmates could be included at a later date.
It is not immediately clear how many of the inmates will actually have to be transferred based on the judge’s revised criteria, said Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for federal receiver J. Clark Kelso, who made the recommendations to Henderson.
Henderson criticized Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration for delaying significant response to the problem for years and for its recent proposal to delay action for several months until the U.S. Centers for Disease Control can complete health studies at the prisons.
Prison officials are moving about 600 vulnerable inmates by August, but “are unwilling to exclude other inmates whom they know are at an increased risk of severe disease, which may lead to death,” the judge wrote. “Defendants have therefore clearly demonstrated their unwillingness to respond adequately to the health care needs of California’s inmate population.”
Henderson gave the state seven days to begin moving the inmates and 90 days to finish the transfers.
State corrections officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
