Los Angeles: inmates seek to contract coronavirus

Thinking of obtaining their release, prisoners detained in Los Angeles County deliberately tried to contract the coronavirus to obtain their release, said the local police chief on Monday. "There is a misconception circulating in the prison population that if someone tests positive (at Covid-19, editor's note) , we will somehow be forced to release more people, but it's not like that, " said Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva at a press conference.

The sheriff notably cited images of video surveillance taken in mid-April in two units of a prison in Castaic, about sixty kilometers north of Los Angeles. A first video shows inmates sharing hot water queuing outside the infirmary, "trying to artificially increase their temperature to pretend to have one of the symptoms" of the new coronavirus, according to the sheriff. On another, we can see prisoners drinking from the same disposable cup and taking turns breathing in the same mask.

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An investigation was opened and, according to Alex Villanueva, 21 detainees tested positive for Covid-19 in these two units alone, one week after the videos. "It is sad to think that someone is seeking voluntary exposure to Covid-19," said the sheriff, noting that more than 4,500 inmates (40% of the county's prison population) were in quarantine. A total of 357 have tested positive to date, of which 117 have recovered.

Some 5,000 prisoners have been released to reduce overcrowding in prisons, from 17,000 to 11,700. "We have done everything in our power to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in our prison system," said Sheriff Villanueva.

The human rights organization JusticeLA for its part criticized the sanitary conditions in local prisons. She launched a lawsuit last month against the Los Angeles Sheriff's services over the matter, also calling for the release of the most vulnerable prisoners.

"Contrary to the sheriff's assertions, what comes back to me from people who are incarcerated is that there is not enough soap, not enough hot water, that the police make fun of people locked up by coughing in front of them and telling them they're going to die from the Covid, " said Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement and a party to the JusticeLA complaint, in a statement.