CDCR Report Card
A Report Card Grading CDCR’s COVID-19 Response
On March 13th, 2020, the United States declared a National Emergency concerning the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. As early as April, our members in prisons across California, and their loved ones, began reporting unsanitary and dangerous conditions to us, including a lack of medical and mental healthcare, lack of hygiene and disinfectant supplies, careless transfers of people between facilities spreading the virus, and inadequate access to communication with loved ones.
Initiate Justice set out to understand how each CDCR facility was responding to COVID-19. We received 545 responses from people with loved ones across every CDCR facility. Incarcerated individuals are among the most vulnerable people to the virus, and as our survey results show, incarcerated people’s basic needs and safety during this crisis were not met. Institutional mismanagement and a failure to respond by CDCR and our elected officials led to COVID-19 spreading like wildfire inside CA prisons.
THE RESULTS:
CDCR IS FAILING, EARNING A GRADE OF “D”
| Overall CDCR Grade | D | 2.44 |
|---|
| Access to PPE for people who are incarcerated | D | 2.58 |
|---|---|---|
| • Access to masks: “incarcerated people have to make their own masks, but are provided materials” | 3.80 | |
| • Access to hand soap: “some incarcerated people are provided with sufficient state-issued hand soap, but it is inconsistent” | 3.50 | |
| • Access to hand sanitizer: “in areas where hand-washing is not available, there is no hand sanitizer most of the time” | 1.99 | |
| • Access to gloves: “it is very difficult for anyone inside the facility (even workers) to have access to gloves” | 2.03 | |
| Access to testing and medical services for people who are incarcerated | D- | 2.13 |
| • Access to COVID-19 testing: “most people who request testing do not get it, or it takes a long time” | 2.10 | |
| • Access to medical services: “since the COVID-19 outbreak, it has become harder to access medical care” | 2.17 | |
| Social distance and quarantine measures for people who are incarcerated | D | 2.68 |
| • Social distancing procedures: “social distancing is hard to achieve because of overcrowding” | 2.24 | |
| • Enforcement of social distancing and health procedures: “incarcerated people are written up if they do not follow health or social distancing procedure” | 2.73 | |
| • Quarantine procedures: “sometimes people who are sick are quarantined and tested, sometimes they are not” | 3.18 | |
| • Facility transfer procedures: “people who are transferred are usually not screened or quarantined” | 2.58 | |
| Staff observance of COVID-19 safety measures | D- | 2.35 |
| • Staff use of masks: “most staff do not wear masks and the facility does not enforce mask policy” | 2.71 | |
| • Staff observance of social distancing: “social distancing is hard to achieve because staff do not usually follow procedure” | 2.24 | |
| • Staff transparency/attitude toward COVID-19: “staff is somewhat rude and dishonest about COVID-19-related questions” | 2.11 | |
| Access to programming and phone calls | D | 2.44 |
| • Access to programming preserved: “all programming has been shut down and no one can access programs” | 1.80 | |
| • Access to phone calls preserved: “program has been modified and phone calls are only accessible once or twice per week” | 3.08 |
VIEW GRADES BY FACILITY
ALL FACILITIES BY GRADE
| Grade: | Facilities: |
|---|---|
| C- | California City Correctional Facility |
| D+ | California Men’s Colony | California State Prison, Solano | Calipatria State Prison | Correctional Training Facility | Folsom State Prison | High Desert State Prison | Mule Creek State Prison |
| D | Avenal State Prison | California Healthcare Facility, Stockton | California Institution for Men | California Medical Facility | California State Prison, Corcoran | California State Prison, Los Angeles County | California State Prison, Sacramento | Centinela State Prison | Chuckawalla Valley State Prison | Deuel Vocational Institution | Ironwood State Prison | North Kern State Prison | RJ Donovan Correctional Facility | Salinas Valley State Prison | Sierra Conservation Center | Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran | Valley State Prison | Wasco State Prison |
| D- | California Correctional Center | California Correctional Institution | California Rehabilitation Center | Kern Valley State Prison | Pelican Bay State Prison | San Quentin State Prison |
| F | California Institution for Women | Central California Women’s Facility | Pleasant Valley State Prison |
OUR DEMANDS
#1 |
|---|
| Governor Newsom and CDCR must grant large-scale releases and drastically reduce the overall prison population to below 50% of current capacity – as outlined by HealthCare experts at UCSF and UC Berkeley. |
#4 |
| Continuous COVID-19 testing must be available to all incarcerated people and staff rapidly and on a regular basis. |
#2 |
|---|
| These large-scale releases must be granted without categorical exclusions based on convictions. |
#5 |
|---|
| CDCR must allow programming and credit-earning to occur during the pandemic. Virtually all programs have been sidelined since the outbreak in March. |
#3 |
|---|
| Governor Newsom and CDCR must continue to halt all transfers between prisons and intake from county jails. Transfers to ICE must also be discontinued immediately. |
#6 |
|---|
| Since family visits have been cut off in March, CDCR must increase access to phones, JPAY emails, and tele-visiting options. |
TESTIMONY BY LOVED ONES
OUR METHODOLOGY
Data in this report was collected via an online survey of Initiate Justice members who have loved ones who are currently incarcerated in California prisons. The survey was designed by Initiate Justice staff and was fielded between May and August 2020, resulting in 545 responses as of August 6, 2020. While all California prison facilities are represented in the report card, analysis of California Healthcare Facility, Stockton, and California Institution for Women is limited due to insufficient data. All questions required a response in order to complete the survey. All questions on the survey were based on a 5.0 scale, where 1 equals the lowest score and 5 equals the highest score. “I Don’t Know” was also an option for each question, but these responses were discounted in order to calculate average scores. Each facility received an average score for each question, followed by an average score for each category of questions. The average score for all questions was then calculated to determine each facility’s overall score. Scores were then converted into grades, which were calculated based on a 5.0 scale, where A = 5, B+ = 4.7 – 4.9, B = 4.4 – 4.6, B- = 4 – 4.3, C+ = 3.7 – 3.9, C = 3.4 – 3.6, C- = 3 – 3.3, D+ = 2.7 – 2.9, D = 2.4 – 2.6, D- = 2 – 2.3, and F = 1 – 1.99.
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