Sam LevinVerified account

Meanwhile the crisis continues to escalate, with Covid currently infecting every CA prison. 8,000+ ppl infected in last two weeks. Incarcerated ppl with Covid are stuck in mass quarantines without basic medical help, in regions where hospitals are overflowing with Covid patients.

So far, CA has not said whether incarcerated people will get vaccines in the early phase. CDCR told me "plans will align with state + health care guidelines for distribution prioritization, and will aim to target frontline workers as well as medically high-risk patients" ...

There's also documented evidence that guards have repeatedly refused to wear masks inside, likely contributing to Covid spread. Some incarcerated ppl have also been punished for trying to disinfect their cells. In this context, vaccines should be required for guards, experts say.

Even if vaccines are available behind bars, CDCR will remain overcrowded + Covid will continue to spread, says @jamesking0314: "It still wouldn't mitigate the underlying health crisis in our state prisons." He and others are urging mass release of elderly and vulnerable to start.

That legacy + this year's mishandling of Covid will pose a huge obstacle to getting ppl inside CDCR to trust the vaccine, says @aviramh. She argues vaccines must be combined w/ mass releases: "The trust breakdown is just so profound that some gesture of goodwill has to come in."

The history of medical harm in CDCR is recent, including mass illnesses + death from valley fever, and the scandal of forced sterilizations, notes @aviramh. Now Covid: “At every turn, the message has been, ‘We don’t care about your lives, we are here to punish you.’”

“Their relationship to the vaccine has to be situated within the context of CDCR’s history of not only failing to meet the medical needs of incarcerated people, but actually causing harm ... They are still making medical decisions that are not based upon people’s medical needs.”

Incarcerated people in CA have witnessed CDCR’s botched Covid response, which has allowed guards to bring Covid to every single prison, leading to mass and worsening outbreaks and 104 deaths. So why would people inside trust a vaccine? says @jamesking0314:

CDCR has a long history of severe medical neglect + abuse, including experimenting on incarcerated people. Some will likely be reluctant or scared to take a vaccine. This mistrust is compounded by the fact that CDCR has spread Covid across the system, infecting 31,000+ people.

A short thread on the California prison system's Covid catastrophe + vaccine access: Advocates + experts are arguing that CDCR must urgently make vaccines available to incarcerated people, mandate vaccines for guards, AND do mass releases of elderly/vulnerable. Here's why

During Covid, housing functions as schools, sanctuaries + much more. In the Central Valley, an eviction tsunami would be deadly in so many ways “Many people are one unexpected life event away from an eviction + everyone now is experiencing an unexpected life event" -@JanineNkosi

The eviction crisis will be catastrophic for children, notes @JanineNkosi of @FaithinValley. In Central Valley, unhoused families already have nowhere to go, especially when it's unsafe to even go to McDonalds or libraries during the day for basic internet access, due to Covid.