After months of staving off a coronavirus outbreak, the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla is now dealing with more than 450 COVID-19 cases after hitting more than 500 earlier this week.
Colby Lenz, an advocate with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, said the prison has run out of quarantine space, conditions are unsanitary and inmates’ mental health is strained.
"We need better conditions to try to save people's lives in these [coronavirus-] positive units," she said, "including the risk of suicide, which we've seen escalate across the state under COVID conditions generally, and then specifically in those COVID-positive units."
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said it provides mental health services, including telehealth visits, to all inmates who need it.