#Richard j donovan correctional facility how to#

“The people that we’ve talked to are very scared,” Godbold said. The agency is also providing alcohol-based hand sanitizer via sanitizer dispenser stations for housing units, dining halls, work change areas and other areas where sinks and soap are not immediately available, Simas said.īut attorneys said those efforts haven’t assuaged inmates’ fears. If you can make a gift in any amount, we’d appreciate the boost. We’ve raised $54,000 so far - more than halfway to our fundraising goal! We are focusing on creating eight-person pods of inmates within these vacant spaces where they can be housed six-feet apart between groups.”ĭining and recreation happens “one housing unit at a time and with staggered schedules to allow for greater social distancing and cleaning of areas between each use,” she said. Sima said the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is trying to transfer people from shared dorm environments, since it is more difficult to impose social distancing in those settings, by “making creative use of vacant space within some institutions in order to house inmates in places where we can increase physical distancing. All those things are happening as normal.” They’re not told to line up six feet apart. “You still have to go to the window to get your pills from medical staff, and people are saying the pill line is normal.

#Richard j donovan correctional facility how to#

“There needs to be thought of how to adjust all aspects of daily living,” Godbold said. Godbold said that even little things, like a communal beverage machine in the dining hall that everyone touches, can be dangerous. “No bleach, No durable cleaning equipment for the porters.” “Our shower stalls are deploreable !!!” wrote Payne in his letter. Those shared spaces, like the showers and dining hall, are the most concerning places to many. In the dorm-like areas, people are restricted to their rooms for a few hours a day, but their doors remain unlocked so they can go to and from the shared showers. There are still enough in each group to make social distancing difficult, she said. In the lower-level yards that are more like dorms, inmates still eat together in a shared space, but fewer people are allowed in at once. In the high-security yard, people no longer eat together in one room, but have food brought to cells, said attorney Laura Sheppard, who has several clients in Donovan. Because of the different nature of each yard, the measures being taken to guard against COVID-19 have been different, too, attorneys say. Some are more like dorms, while other, higher-security yards have two-person cells. “We take the health and safety of all those who live and work in our state prisons very seriously and have taken unprecedented steps to address COVID-19 within our institutions,” Simas wrote.ĭonovan is split into different yards, which are physically separated. “(Inmates) affraid that one of the staff will infect us like at other prisons,” wrote Devein Payne, who is currently incarcerated at Donovan, in a letter to Voice of San Diego.ĭonovan is currently on a 14-day modified programming schedule where “inmate movement is limited to address the coronavirus spread,” wrote Dana Simas, a press secretary for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, in an e-mail. But attorneys and staff are particularly concerned about a lack of precautionary measures at the facility, because it is a medical hub for the corrections system, and many people incarcerated there have medical issues, including diabetes and cancer, that could make them more vulnerable to the disease. So far, 18 inmates at Donovan have been tested and there have been no positive cases. There have been 89 confirmed coronavirus cases among staffers and 121 cases among inmates within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation statewide. “Some people feel like they’ve been given a possible death sentence,” said Penny Godbold, an attorney at Rosen, Bien, Galvan & Grunfeld, who represents clients with disabilities incarcerated at Donovan. Donovan state prison in San Diego County say officials are taking inadequate measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus – which they believe could be particularly deadly in the facility, which houses medically vulnerable patients.Īn inability to social distance, inadequate hygiene in shared areas like showers and inconsistency in how different parts of the prison implement measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus are among the concerns highlighted. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego / Photo by Adriana HeldizĪttorneys, staff and those incarcerated at the Richard J. Attorneys, Staff and Inmates at Donovan State Prison Raise Coronavirus Concerns | Voice of San Diego Close