(Los Angeles) California to release up to 8000 additional prisoners to reduce the spread of the coronavirus in its overcrowded prisons, authorities in the US state have announced. particularly affected by the pandemic.
Posted on 11 July 2020 at 8 o'clock08
France Media Agency
These prisoners will be able to claim early release by the end of August, thus joining the 10 000 others already released since the start of the health crisis, said Friday the California department responsible for prison administration.
“These initiatives are aimed at ensuring the health and safety of the incarcerated population and staff,” said department director Ralph Diaz in a statement.
This announcement, welcomed by supporters of a prison reform, follows an increase in cases of COVID – 19 in the 'one of California's oldest prisons, San Quentin, where more than a thousand prisoners have tested positive for the new coronavirus.
“This is one of our deep concerns at the moment,” said Governor Gavin Newsom in late June, stressing that 40% Of the few 3500 detainees in this prison near San Francisco are considered “medically fragile”.
The cases of infection in the prison of San Quentin constitute almost half of those registered in the prisons of the State where are imprisoned in total close to 113 000 people.
Prisoners who will be released, including those from San Quentin, will be tested for COVID disease – 19 during the week following their release, said the statement released Friday.
California, the most populous of the American states with approximately 40 million inhabitants, confirmed more than 300 000 cases of infections and more of 6800 death.
