Jails in California are not complying with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order to social distance inmates while they are in custody or being transferred to court for hearings, putting them and others at risk of getting and spreading the coronavirus, according to a top state judicial official.
“I have received no assurance that the jails in California are practicing social distancing,” Judicial Council of California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye told the council in a public meeting phone call over the weekend. “I have received no assurance that when they transport inmates from the jail onto a bus and then onto our property and into the holding cells, basis of motion to courthouse, that they are practicing social distancing, nor am I confident that once they move these inmates into our locations within our courthouses that we have any space to practice social distancing.”
Cantil-Sakauye oversees the policymaking arm of the California court system, which is the largest in the nation with 1,800 justices and judges handling 6 million cases in a state of nearly 40 million residents.
Following Cantil-Sakauye’s comments, the council on Saturday unanimously approved emergency measures to make digital proceedings a priority for inmates, as well as extensions for preliminary hearings.
“That was to protect the public because you could not operate with social distancing,” Cantil-Sakauye said. “And we risk not only infecting the other public — and creating vectors that went out into the street after they came to the court — but also the possibility of infecting people in the court. And people in the court that you know, many of them are first responders. They are law enforcement. They are firemen.”
Jury trials were previously suspended for 60 days.
“[We] need judges who are healthy and able to be on the bench,” she said. “This is also an avenue to protect the public. It’s also … to protect inmates as well.”
Last Friday, Newsom signed another order that gave the Judicial Council permission to set new guidelines for how it will proceed during the pandemic.
California authorities who oversee the state’s jails did not respond to a request for comment.
