Inmates try to infect themselves with COVID-19 so they’ll be freed, CA video shows

Inmates in California jails purposefully tried to infect themselves with the coronavirus because they believed they could be released, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a news conference Monday that surveillance videos showed inmates in L.A. County jails trying to infect themselves by taking sips from the same bottle of hot water, “sniffing out of a common mask” and passing around a styrofoam cup to share.

“Now, they’re sharing the hot water from the dispenser in the same bottle,” he said at the news conference. “Right after this video was taken, a nurse came to take temperatures. With the hot water, they were trying to falsely elevate their temperature readings to generate the symptoms of COVID-19.”

Within a week of what was videotaped by surveillance cameras, 21 inmates tested positive for COVID-19, Villanueva said.

“It’s sad to think someone deliberately tried to expose themselves to COVID-19,” he said. “Somehow there was a mistaken belief among the inmate population that if they tested positive, there was a way to force our hand and somehow release more inmates out of the jail environment, and that’s not going to happen.”

Villanueva said the county has taken several measures to reduce and prevent the spread of COVID-19 within the jail system, including reducing their population, adding COVID-19 screening, cleaning and social distancing.

More than 350 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 inside the L.A. County jails since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Nationwide, there have been outbreaks in state and federal prisons. Thousands of state and federal correctional officers and incarcerated people have tested positive for coronavirus, according to McClatchy News.

The American Civil Liberties Union and prison employees have issued a call last week for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to immediately begin mass testing of prison employees and incarcerated people, McClatchy News reported.

“The recently released numbers highlight one of the reasons jails and prisons across the country comprise 6 of the 10 largest hotspots of COVID-19 infection, putting both those who work and are incarcerated in them at increased risk of contracting this deadly disease,” Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, and Shane Fausey, president of the Council of Prison Locals C-33, said in anews release. “We believe that there are likely thousands of additional cases among officers and incarcerated people that haven’t been reported because of the lack of testing.”

This story was originally published May 11, 2020 at 2:57 PM with the headline "Inmates try to infect themselves with COVID-19 so they’ll be freed, CA video shows."