This coastal county, known for its vineyards and stunning
ocean views, is also home to the Lompoc Federal Correctional Complex, which
has one
of the country’s largest COVID-19 outbreaks in a prison. Nearly 1,000
prisoners have tested positive. Two have died.
California’s governor had set clear requirements for
counties to emerge from lockdown. The prison outbreak made it hard for Santa
Barbara to meet those standards. So local officials proposed a solution: Don’t
count the prisoners.
“The individuals in the Lompoc prison are not out in the
community, so it’s really a whole separate population,” said Suzanne Grimmesey,
a county spokeswoman.
County officials prevailed. The California Health and Human
Services Agency agreed last week to exclude COVID-19
infections of federal and state prisoners when it decides whether a
county can loosen up on lockdowns. Before Memorial Day weekend, Santa
Barbara announced it had
been approved for limited reopening. Shoppers can now go to malls and swap
meets. Restaurants can offer dine-in service.
The state made the decision because “inmates of state and
federal prisons generally do not return to the counties in which they are
incarcerated,” an agency spokeswoman said.
The situation in Santa Barbara, a county with close to
450,000 residents, could play out in communities throughout the country.
Prisons account for many of the “hot
spots” for COVID-19 infections, from Trousdale
County, Tennessee, to Liberty
County, Florida, to Marion
County, Ohio. And many local officials, from Pennsylvania to Arkansas, have
raised the idea of separating out the prison cases.
Some advocates for prisoners called the decision to exclude
the cases problematic, raising concerns that the move could reduce political
pressure to address the COVID-19 crisis behind bars. They were also dubious
about the idea that prisons are separate from the larger community, noting that
staff come and go each day.
“It's a fiction,” said Kate Chatfield, a senior advisor at
the Justice Collaborative, a criminal justice advocacy group. “The virus
doesn’t stay within the walls of the prisons, as we know.”
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