California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officials are considering releasing about 8,000 inmates into the general public over concerns of the Chinese coronavirus spreading.
The plan, officials said, may result in the release of 8,000 inmates in less than two months and is designed to “implement physical distancing, isolation, and quarantine efforts.” Officials said the inmates will be tested for coronavirus “within seven days of release.”
“We’re glad the Governor is taking action to release more people,” Californians for Safety and Justice Executive Director Jay Jordan said in a statement on the CDCR website.
“This is absolutely critical for the health and safety of every Californian,” Jordan said. “Too many people are incarcerated for too long in facilities that spread poor health. Supporting the health and safety of all Californians means releasing people unnecessarily incarcerated and transforming our justice system.”
The release of the roughly 8,000 inmates would be in addition to the approximately 10,000 inmates that California officials have already released from law enforcement custody. In Los Angeles, California, many inmates were not tested for coronavirus before their release.
In the most famous case thus far, inmates in Los Angeles were recorded on prison surveillance attempting to spread the coronavirus between each other by drinking from the same water bottles and sniffing face masks. The inmates, the sheriff said at the time, believed that they would be released if the coronavirus spread throughout the prison.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.