Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

San Quentin Death Sentence
David Bacon
29 Jul 2020
🖨️ Print Article
San Quentin Death Sentence
San Quentin Death Sentence

Prisoners’ supporters and loved ones demanded release of half the population and no transfers between prisons or to ICE.

“With a total prison population of 104,725, there isn’t adequate space for isolation.”

On Sunday, July 19, about a hundred people gathered at the gate of San Quentin State Prison in San Rafael, to call for the release of prisoners because of the terrifying spread of COVID-19 inside the facility. On May 30th the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation transferred 121 prisoners from the California Institution for Men prison in Chino into San Quentin. At the time there were no known cases of the virus in San Quentin, while Chino was a recognized hot spot.

The coronavirus infection spread rapidly through San Quentin. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation [CDCR], as of the date of the vigil there were 928 active cases and eleven prisoners had died.

Less than half of the prison’s current 3,524 population had been tested in the two weeks prior to the vigil. According to the CDCR, the concentration of confirmed cases at San Quentin is 621.9 per 1000. By comparison, for California (a hot spot state) as a whole, the confirmed case rate is 11.1 per 1000.

The vigil organizers include the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and the Stop San Quentin Outbreak Coalition, which describes itself as “a collective of formerly incarcerated folks, loved ones with direct connections to San Quentin State Prison, community organizers, and currently incarcerated folks at San Quentin State Prison.” Other participants came from the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Re:Store Justice and the Asian Prisoner Support Committee. The speeches and placards they carried demanded that Governor Newsom come to the prison, that the state grant large-scale releases without categorical exclusions (a 50% reduction in the prison population), and an immediate stop to all transfers between prisons and from prisons to ICE detention centers.

“The concentration of confirmed cases at San Quentin was 621.9 per 1000, compared to 11.1. per 1000 for the state of California as a whole.”

The day following the vigil a twelfth prisoner, Troy Ashmus, died of the coronavirus according to prison authorities. Five more prisoners have died in the past week, bringing the total number of deaths at San Quentin to 17. In just 25 days, the number of incarcerated people at San Quentin with COVID-19 went from zero to over a thousand active cases. As the numbers rise, demonstrations by desperate families have become increasingly frequent.

According to the CDCR, the state prison system now has 7,672 confirmed cases, of which 1,025 were reported in the last two weeks. Governor Newsom has announced that he will release 8,000 prisoners by the end of August, but over the next six weeks the infected will likely number in the tens of thousands. With a prison population of 104,725 (123% of its designed capacity) there isn’t adequate space for isolation.

Laura Mondragon, wife of a prisoner, told the vigil participants that Newsom had to act more quickly to prevent more deaths. “Getting sent to San Quentin shouldn’t be an automatic death sentence,” she said. “But with the virus there is a terrible risk that it will be for people like my husband.”

David Bacon is a former union organizer, photographer, and writer, covering labor, immigration, and the impact of the global economy on workers. He is the author of The Right to Stay Home: How US Policy Drives Mexican Migration (2013), Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (2008), Communities Without Borders(2006), and The Children of NAFTA: Labor Wars on the US/Mexico Border (2004). His website is at dbacon.igc.org.

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com  

Mass Black Incarceration

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Reuven Blau
Blacks and Hispanics Seeking Parole Face Widening Racial Disparity, Report Finds
20 November 2024
After a damning revelation eight years ago, state leaders changed the make-up of the Parole Board to combat inequality.
ESSAY: Women in Prison: How We Are, Assata Shakur, 1978
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Women in Prison: How We Are, Assata Shakur, 1978
10 August 2022
Assata Shakur exposes the conditions faced by incarcerated Black women in a powerful 1978 essay.
The US Political Elite Gives Cover to the Brutal US Police State
Netfa Freeman
The US Political Elite Gives Cover to the Brutal US Police State
09 February 2022
The US political elite and their elite press are using the fraudulent claims about a “crime wave” as an ideological offensive, a backlash, agai
Organizers Are Calling on Congress to Close Loophole That Enables Prison Slavery
Tamar Sarai Davis
Organizers Are Calling on Congress to Close Loophole That Enables Prison Slavery
08 July 2021
The ‘slavery clause’ made the passage of restrictions targeting Black people like the Black Codes possible as well as convict leasing of
Lost Opportunity, Lost Lives
 Lisa Armstrong
Lost Opportunity, Lost Lives
01 July 2021
Prison officials could have prevented sickness and death by releasing those who were most vulnerable to coronavirus and least likely to reoffend —
To End Racial Capitalism, We Will Need to Take On the Institution of Policing
Henry A. Giroux
To End Racial Capitalism, We Will Need to Take On the Institution of Policing
23 June 2021
The same activists who are working to defund the police are also part of a collective movement to bring an end to neoliberal capitalism.
Hacked Emails Give Unfiltered View Into the DC Police Gang Database
Chris Gelardi
Hacked Emails Give Unfiltered View Into the DC Police Gang Database
23 June 2021
“Police can call you a gang member because they observed you with other gang members, who they declared gang members because they were with other g
Jail Populations Back Up After COVID-19
Weihua Li, Beth Schwartzapfel, Michael R. Sisak and Camille Fassett
Jail Populations Back Up After COVID-19
09 June 2021
Judges, prosecutors and sheriffs in many states sent people home instead of to jail last year, but new data suggests the change is not lasting.
How Corporations Buy—and Sell—Food Made With Prison Labor
H. Claire Brown 
How Corporations Buy—and Sell—Food Made With Prison Labor
02 June 2021
The small world of prison food production is a microcosm of the American food system, which all too o#en functions as a race to the bottom.
The US’s Biggest County Jails Are Sites of Extreme Environmental Injustice
Adam Mahoney
The US’s Biggest County Jails Are Sites of Extreme Environmental Injustice
06 May 2021
After first being forced to live in chemically toxic communities, Black and Brown people are then incarcerated in jails where they cannot escape so

More Stories


  • Tens of Thousands Threatened with Property Tax Foreclosures in Detroit
    Abayomi Azikiwe
    Tens of Thousands Threatened with Property Tax Foreclosures in Detroit
    30 Mar 2022
    March 31 has been designated as the deadline for Wayne County residents to pay back property taxes from 2019 and before despite the failure to provide adequate assistance to working and impoverished…
  • Telesur
    Colombian Vice-Presidential Candidate Gets Death Threat
    30 Mar 2022
    Colombian Vice Presidential candidate Francia Marquez is again threatened by right wing groups in that country. She demands that president Ivan Duque protect her and others leaders as well.
  • Pentagon Drops Truth Bombs to Stave Off War With Russia
    Joe Lauria
    Pentagon Drops Truth Bombs to Stave Off War With Russia
    28 Mar 2022
    Leaked stories from the Pentagon have exposed how mainstream media reports Russia’s conduct in the Ukraine war, in a bid to counter propaganda intended to get NATO into the conflict.
  • Divided World: The UN Condemnation of Russia is Endorsed by Countries Run by the Richest, Oldest, Whitest People on Earth But Only 41% of the World’s Population
    Roger Stoll
    Divided World: The UN Condemnation of Russia is Endorsed by Countries Run by the Richest, Oldest, Whitest People on Earth But Only 41% of the World’s Population
    28 Mar 2022
    The UN General Assembly vote on Russia's intervention in Ukraine indicates that most of the world's people do not condemn this action. The reality is a far cry from U.S. claims that Russia is…
  • Francia Márquez Mina, a Black woman activist from the predominantly Black and forgotten region of the Pacific coast, is Colombia’s First Black Vice Presidential Candidate.
    Janvieve Williams Comrie
    Francia Márquez: Colombia's First Black Vice Presidential Candidate
    25 Mar 2022
    Francia Márquez Mina, a Black woman activist from the Black region of the Pacific coast, is Colombia’s First Black Vice Presidential Candidate.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us