LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A former state prison inmate released from custody at the start of April under an early release plan is among the six positive COVID-19 cases in Lake County.
Sheriff Brian Martin confirmed the case to Lake County News.
The male prisoner was released from the California Institution for Men in Chino on April 6 as part of an early release program the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced last month, according to Dana Simas, the agency’s press secretary.
Simas said the male subject was asymptomatic in a “comprehensive screening” conducted by institution medical staff before he was released to return to Lake County.
She said his regularly scheduled release date was April 10, and CDCR cannot legally hold someone past their release date.
“He was told to self-quarantine until April 20 and was provided a facial barrier to wear while in-transit to his county of release,” she said.
The man’s positive case of COVID-19 ultimately would be identified by a Lake County Public Health nurse conducting contact tracing, according to Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace.
“I think it’s pretty irresponsible the way it was handled,” said Sheriff Martin, citing safety concerns for the general public and for law enforcement coming in contact with the individual.
Lake County’s positive COVID-19 cases were confirmed by Public Health on April 5, 6, 8, 10, 13 and 15, as Lake County News has reported.
As of Monday, five are reported to have recovered, with one case still active, according to the Lake County Public Health COVID-19 dashboard. There have been no deaths.
Pace would not respond to questions about which of the county’s latter cases involved the former prison inmate.
Breakdowns in communication
While CDCR and the Lake County Public Health Department communicated about the case, neither of those agencies reached out to proactively inform either the Lake County Sheriff’s Office or the Lake County Probation Department that the inmate had tested positive for COVID-19.
“I wasn’t informed until I asked and had to do some investigation to get to the bottom of this,” said Martin.
Martin said he had been notified by CDCR on April 2 that several inmates were to be returned to the county due to the early release plan.
Martin said he went to Pace to ask if any state prison inmates being returned to Lake County had tested positive for COVID-19. Pace confirmed it to Martin on Monday morning.
Chief Probation Officer Rob Howe told Lake County News that CDCR also had notified his department about several inmates set for early release back to Lake County.
Of those, three were to be released to State Parole and six were to be released to Lake County Probation and monitored through the Post Release Community Supervision program. “Turns out there was some mistake and only five were actually released to us under PRCS,” Howe said.
“Unfortunately CDCR did not disclose any information about any of them being exposed, quarantined or actually testing positive for COVID,” Howe said.
Howe said he also was not notified by Public Health about the positive COVID-19 case in one of the parolees.
The former prisoner who tested positive for COVID-19 was one of those who his staff was to have supervised under the Post Release Community Supervision program, Howe said.
“I should say though that I have not personally spoken to Dr. Pace, or anyone else at Public Health, so I’m not sure just what information they had and if they understood the contact my department could have with this subject,” he said.
Sheriff Martin’s confirmation of the situation comes days after Mendocino County Public Health Officer Dr. Noemi Doohan reported that county’s fifth case was a state parolee on early release, as Lake County News has reported.
The Mendocino Voice reported that the inmate also had been released from Chino, one of the state prisons with the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
A dashboard for tracking COVID-19 cases in state prisons said Monday that the number of confirmed cases statewide is 124, with 689 individuals tested.
The highest case counts are at facilities in Los Angeles and Chino, which had 60 and 58 cases, respectively, as of Monday night, at which point one death also had been confirmed at Chino.
Across the state as a whole, by Monday night total cases were nearing 34,000, with more than 1,200 deaths.
On Monday evening Martin and Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall had a conference call with CDCR Secretary Ralph Diaz, appointed to the job by Gov. Gavin Newsom in March 2019.
“There was a misstep in communication somewhere along the way,” Martin said, discussing the call with Lake County News afterward.
He said the prison health care system shares information with parole agencies but not the local probation agencies.
The state’s prison health care officials also talk to local health departments. Martin said one of the challenging things is that there are 58 different local health officers for the state’s counties.
“The amount of information that a health officer chooses to share is up to that health officer,” Martin said, with some sharing more information than others.
One potential solution discussed in the conference call that Martin said Diaz indicated a willingness to explore is a mechanism for the state to let counties know when people are being released back to their jurisdictions from prisons with high COVID-19 case numbers.
Public Health contact tracing identifies the case
Under CDCR’s early release plan, inmates aren’t tested but rather screened immediately before release for symptoms of influenza-like illness, including COVID-19. The screening includes asking an individual if they have a cough, fever and/or difficulty breathing, and taking their temperature, according to an agency statement.
Pace told Lake County News that the former inmate was tested for the virus as the result of a Public Health nurse following reports of a person coming to the county who had been in contact with a case.
“This is in the toolbox of public health – following people who have been in contact with a case and testing them if indicated,” he said.
Pace refused to release any demographic information about the man, citing protection of case information. However, last week, Mendocino County’s health officer released the age range and gender of that patient, along with the community where he is staying.
In response to Lake County News’ questions about why Pace didn’t inform law enforcement that the former inmate tested positive, he said, “Inmates getting early release are reported to local law enforcement through law enforcement channels.”
He added, “As I have reported previously, all of the COVID patients in Lake County have complied with the standard home isolation protocols.”
Early releases part of state plan
The early releases are part of a plan CDCR announced in late March that it said was meant to protect staff and inmates from further spread of COVID-19 in state prisons.
The plan aims to create increased capacity and space to help with inmate movement, physical distancing and isolation efforts.
CDCR estimated that as many as 3,500 prisoners were eligible for the ”expedited transition to parole.”
To be eligible, inmates had to have 60 days or less to serve on their sentences and not be currently serving time for a violent crime as defined by law, a sex offense or domestic violence.
Simas said all of the releases were completed by April 13.
To date, Mendocino and Lake counties are among the first to report issues with state prison inmates being released and testing positive for COVID-19 after returning to their jurisdictions.
Mendocino County’s inmate was released on April 8, Simas reported.
In the Mendocino County case, Simas said the public health nursing staff at Chino provided the former inmate with education regarding COVID-19, instructed him to immediately report to Stanislaus County Probation and advised him to self-quarantine upon arrival in the county through April 20.
Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster faulted CDCR for what he called “state prison inmate dumping,” the early release of inmates with known virus exposure to benefit the depopulation of a state prison facility at the cost of placing local public health across the state at risk.
His office told Lake County News over the weekend that it still had not received a response from the state to its questions.
In the case of Mendocino County’s COVID-19-positive parolee case, Eyster questioned why it’s appropriate to give a state prison inmate a health notice that he may have been exposed to the virus and must undergo a 14-day period of quarantine, but then early release that person the very next day with full knowledge that the quarantine period had not been successfully completed.
“What could possibly go wrong? And how many more virus-exposed inmates have also been granted early releases back into our communities in the state's effort to depopulate its facilities?” Eyster said in a statement released to Lake County News.
The former prison inmate who made his way to Ukiah was to have returned to Stanislaus County but Eyster said the man called that county's probation office and told them he was not coming back to Stanislaus after he already had been in Mendocino County for several days. At that point he received travel authorization to be in Ukiah.
Eyster said CDCR has no plan in place to make sure that inmates who receive early releases go where they’re supposed to go.
He also pointed out that normal procedures call for local probation departments to accept a transfer. In this case, Mendocino County was never asked.
"Who would accept an out of county transfer during a shelter in place?" Eyster asked.
Following Monday night’s call with CDCR, Martin was hopeful the process is going to improve.
“This is one of those situations where nobody’s ever done this before, we don’t have a playbook to go by,” Martin said. “I think today was a learning experience for everybody. I am confident that it won’t happen again.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Former state prison inmate on early release among Lake County’s confirmed COVID-19 cases
- Elizabeth Larson
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