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Inmate at Lancaster prison tests positive for coronavirus

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Early release from prison was under consideration this week as the California Department of Corrections announced the first inmate tested positive for the coronavirus in Lancaster.

“The patient is in stable condition and is being treated on-site,” the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement released March 22.

The patient is an inmate at California State Prison in Lancaster and has been in isolation since March 19, when he reported  not feeling well. He was tested the following day and results were received Sunday, the agency reported.

Five state prison staff members have also tested positive — two each at the California Institution for Men in Chino and California State Prison in Sacramento and one other at Folsom State Prison.

“We are working to provide updated testing numbers on our website this week,” the agency’s statement says.

Movement will be restricted at the Lancaster prison while an investigation is conducted to determine the source of contact, and those deemed at risk will be quarantined, according to the CDCR.

The announcement came a day after a state task force held discussions about steering California’s incarcerated population through the storm of the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller on Friday ordered the task force effort during a telephone status hearing. The hearing was for updates on prison mental health but instead dwelt almost entirely on COVID-19.

Lawyers for the governor’s office, corrections department, Department of State Hospitals and those representing prisoners in long-running litigation over prison conditions met.

At Mueller’s direction, the prison population is on the table, said plaintiff’s attorney Michael Bien.

After a decade of sustained effort to reduce health-threatening overcrowding, California’s prison system remains at 134 percent capacity, with more than 114,000 inmates in state prisons built to hold 85,000. Another 8,700 prisoners are in camps and contracted private lockups.

Despite mounting pressure from civil liberties groups such as the ACLU and advocates for inmates, prison systems across the U.S. have thus far resisted calls to reduce their COVID-19 threats by releasing prisoners. Jail systems, however, have adopted such programs, including those in Los Angeles, Alameda, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties.

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