Employees in the San Francisco Public Defenderâs office have been working throughout the holiday weekend to call for the immediate release of roughly 60 of their clients in San Quentin State Prison amid a growing number of COVID-19 cases as well as fatalities.
âOur research unit has prepared a habeas petition calling for the superior court to immediately release these individuals⦠on the basis that it represents a risk to their health and safety,â said Stephen Liebb on the phone on July 4. Liebb is a legal assistant in the public integrity unit of the SF Public Defenderâs office.
Of the roughly 60 clients from San Francisco, many are serving life sentences for a third strike, said Liebb. âThey’re no longer a threat to public safety, except if they were released with a transmissible disease that was propagated by CDCR,â he said.
In order to process the petition, theyâll first need to get consent from each of their clients. They are currently in the process of getting the paperwork through to their clients and preparing the additional forms and paperwork that will need to be approved. As the bureaucratic runaround continues at least three men died of COVID-19 related complications over the weekend.
âIt’s impossible to maintain social distancing,â Liebb said, adding that the cells are the size of a closet. Based on accounts from those currently incarcerated in San Quentin, the correctional officers do not wear masks, Liebb said.
But his biggest concern is that the current environment â without family visits, outside volunteers and lawyers able to visit is rife for âextreme abuse.â
âWe’re all concerned for ourselves, for loved ones. And that’s magnified in prison. It’s magnified by isolation,â he said.
Liebb knows, in part, because he was incarcerated for 32 years and in San Quentin from 1995 to 2013, and he paroled from there.
âThis is just a devastating situation to be in, where the helplessness and lack of control of incarceration is compounded by a very serious health threat ⦠exacerbated by CDCR,â said Liebb.
Yesterday my team reached out to 60 people living in San Quentin offering urgent representation. Later in the day, we learned that CDCR may transfer them on Monday, before they even get our mail. My heart hurts for these guys and their families. pic.twitter.com/iaIkeXPV8B
— Danielle Harris (@danimargo) June 27, 2020
The public defender’s office is also working on reentry plans since the final step before a judge will order the release of any of their clients is to have a reentry plan in place â including housing, Liebb said.
Some of the continued challenges have been around the inability to guarantee housing because of unknown dates of release as well as a series of paperwork. Liebb would like to see the city of San Francisco allocate emergency housing for individuals who are being returned to the community. Since most administrative staff are working remotely, getting paperwork through has been an increasing challenge. âFrankly, I don’t see a sense of urgency. I see a lot of indifference and a lot of rhetoric that they consider this a serious matter,â Liebb said.
Assemblymember Marc Levine (D-Marin County) has been vocal on the issue of COVID-19 in San Quentin it began, and has been calling for accountability in addition to urgency. “We cannot sweep it under the rug, there must be accountability,” he said on July 1. “Never has too little too late been more true or cruel.”
As of this morning, 1132 inmates & 112 staff at San Quentin State Prison have tested positive for #COVID19. The lives of inmates, staff & the public are at risk. We need a plan & we need action by CDCR to mitigate this crisis. pic.twitter.com/fcsE3iyMko
— Assemblymember Marc Levine (@AsmMarcLevine) July 2, 2020
The importance of decreasing the prison population as soon as possible has been stated by the SF Public Defenderâs office in addition to a multidisciplinary team of academics and health professionals from Amend, who published a memo with recommendations on June 15.
âThe only way we can protect the lives of people at San Quentin and the larger public is to reduce the prison population as quickly as possible,â said Public Defender Manohar Raju in a statement on July 1. Raju has said he stands with the San Quentin Inmate Family Council and supports their demands to the Governor and CDCR. âNot only is the treatment of incarcerated people inside Californiaâs prisons unconscionable, but so is the lack of information and transparency regarding the outbreak,â he said.
Danielle Harris, managing attorney of the integrity unit at the SF Public Defenderâs Office has also been working throughout the weekend, âKnowing it is a matter of life and death for some, we are using whatever legal tools we have to urgently help these men and their families,â she said in a statement.
On Friday, State corrections officials say they’re working to stop the spread of the virus at San Quentin.
“CDCR has increased testing at San Quentin for both inmates and staff, ceased intake and non-essential transfers, and implemented limited movement throughout the prison,” the agency said in a statement Friday.
As of Sunday July 5, there are 1,388 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in San Quentin.
Additional Resources
A guide for Providing Acute Care for Seriously Ill Incarcerated Patients, from Amend
KQED’s How Can You Help People in Prison Right Now | Cómo Puede Ayudar a Las Personas Que Actualmente Se Encuentran en Prisión
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