The COVID-19 outbreak at Folsom State Prison has now grown to over 100 cases, and a prison employee who worked there has died from the virus, state authorities said.
Folsom now has more active cases of COVID-19 than San Quentin State Prison, where cases have dropped to around 90 after an explosive outbreak that began in June.
Both prisons are two of the oldest detention facilities in the state, and their architecture has contributed to the virus’ rapid spread inside, say public health experts.
“What you have in San Quentin and Folsom are cell blocks that are five tiers, one stacked on top of each other, all facing a common atrium,” said Stefano Bertozzi, a professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. “From a re-breathing of air perspective, it’s like a giant dorm, instead of having people socially distanced within individual cells with their own ventilation to the outside.”
Bertozzi is concerned that the outbreak at Folsom could follow a similar trajectory as at San Quentin, where more than 2,000 incarcerated people have tested positive for the coronavirus in the past couple months and 25 have died.