Cal/OSHA fined San Quentin State Prison nearly $421,880 for its coronavirus outbreak, the largest fine the state’s workplace safety agency has levied for pandemic-related violations.
San Quentin was slapped with the fine after Cal/OSHA inspectors found that the prison’s staff did not have the proper training or protective equipment to interact with inmates and other staffers who had contracted COVID-19.
Cal/OSHA also found that staff who had been exposed to a coronavirus patient were not offered proper services like testing, contact tracing and medical referrals.
“Cal/OSHA issued citations for four willful-serious, five serious, one regulatory and four general category violations, including the employer’s failure to institute an effective aerosol transmissible diseases control exposure plan,” the agency said in a statement.
The fine is consistent with a scathing report released Monday by the state’s Office of the Inspector General, which identified the transfer of 122 inmates from the California Institution for Men as the locus for the outbreak that eventually led to 2,240 coronavirus cases and 28 deaths among inmates at San Quentin.
The report also found the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and California Correctional Health Care Services, which oversees health care within the state prison system, improperly tested inmates before the transfer and cut corners to move medically vulnerable inmates out of the Chino facility by the end of May 2020.
“Our review found that the efforts by CCHCS and the department to prepare for and execute the transfers were deeply flawed and risked the health and lives of thousands of incarcerated persons and staff,” Inspector General Roy Wesley said.
Cal/OSHA also issued five-figure citations for coronavirus-related safety violations to Kaiser Permanente medical centers in San Leandro, Antioch and Walnut Creek; the Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame; the NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield; the Fremont Healthcare Center; the San Miguel Villa nursing home in Concord; Cardenas Market in Oakland and Carter’s Children’s Wear in Gilroy.
Employees can file complaints about workplace safety and hazards at a Cal/OSHA district office or by calling (844) 522-6734.
Newsom transferred sick inmates from down south into SQ. There were zero cases before.
Will there ever be justice?
Newsom wants SQ closed badly. Looks like the rat is getting his way.
So who gets charged with manslaughter ? ? ? ? ?
“… transfer of 122 inmates from the California Institution for Men as the locus for the outbreak that eventually led to 2,240 coronavirus cases and 28 deaths among inmates at San Quentin.”
What is the sound of one government agency fining another?
Exactly my thoughts. Absolute idiotic logic.
Where is San Quentin going to get the money? Maybe start charging for tours? Take a collection from inmates? Or will it be taxpayers?
The goal is to close the prison and replace it with high density transit village housing. With an eye for equity of course…….
Option 1) Since they are both state agencies, take the $ from Cal/OSHA’s budget and transfer it to the CDCR’s budget. Then transfer it back – Fine paid.
Option 2 and the most likely scenario, CDCR will make some token policy changes, provide a few more masks, and make the guards watch some videos on Covid-19 safety. Miraculously Cal/OHSA will be satisfied, the “fine” will be allowed to be used to offset the cost of the policy changes, equipment and training and Bob’s your Uncle.
It is a symbolic see someone does watch the watchers gesture.
On the plus side the hits just keep on coming for Newsom… $1 billon dollar N95 face mask contract, EDD allowed billion of dollars in fraudulent claims and now CDCR incompetency.
Move along people, nothing to see here.
So the State “punishes” San Quentin by moving money from one State account to another. In other words, net zero financial effect. It will just have to be made up in the next budget.
Did anyone get fired or demoted? If not, this was a pointless exercise.
Oh No, . . . is but one more move toward the closing of Q and selling off of the last large chunk of undeveloped land bordering the Bay.
Think about it, newsom does away with death penalty, sets it up so death row inmates can transfer to other state Prisons, lawsuits filed for inmates against Q and state.
This is but another checker move to hand over the ground Q sits on as payment for many years of campaign contributions.
An just in case you’re not up on big money behind newsom,
‘How eight elite San Francisco families funded Gavin Newsom’s political ascent’
https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-pol-ca-gavin-newsom-san-francisco-money/
This means the prison will have to dig into their budget, which means they will have to figure out a way to cut corners, which means the possibility of cutting down the heat, turning the lights off a little earlier, and the inmates will probably get worse food, which means there will be a riot.
As for the hospitals and retail outlets, prices will jump and as always the consumer will pay.
Cal Osha, a state-funded bureaucracy fines the
State Department of Corrects, a state-funded bureaucracy.
How does that make any sense?
Who made the decisions that led up to the fine?
Did anyone get reprimanded or fired?
Bottom line, nothing really happened.
Paper got shuffled, bureaucrats had to do a little work.
It doesn’t even add up to a poor joke.
But, the jokes on us.
They will probably charge prisoners (their families) more money for phone calls, use of internet, cut back on food, toiletries, etc. to “pay the fine”.
I guess Cal/OSHA needs the fund to keep operating. Maybe the money collected goes to helping charities.
In other words, the taxpayers have been fined 😡
Ron Broomfield – Warden (A)
So what does the “A” stand for…. hmmmm?
Let’s ask an inmate.
San Quentin should have ben given an award for replacing lethal injection with a more natural method of death. And…heck of a way to bypass Gavin bin Lyin’s moratorium on the death penalty.