The floods presented the weaknesses in the emergency plans of California prisons. They are still not ready

From Kayla MihalovichCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

In 2023, against the background of record rain and snow, two prisons in the South Valley of San Joaquin stood against a a serious risk of floodingS But neither the prison, the California State Prison, Corcoran, nor the drug treatment establishment had a stable evacuation plan and ready for the onset of the disaster.

Instead, the prisons developed a joint plan to transfer approximately 8,000 deprived people to other state prisons within 11 to 14 days – or more. Persons associated with wheelchairs say it will take six days to evacuate. And universal buses designed to transfer people for safety can take it to arrive to arrive.

The floods this year did not come to prisons, but the threat they represented illustrated how the correction system of 90,000 prisons in California failed to prepare for natural disasters. This is so According to a report issued last week by an independent agency that controls the disciplinary process and internal investigations of the department.

„Докато затворите в Калифорния са уязвими от пожари, наводнения и земетресения, установихме, че те не са подготвени адекватно да реагират на спешни случаи, поставени от природни бедствия“, се казва в доклада на Службата на генералния инспектор, който прегледа спешните планове за 30 държавни затвори след опасения за реакцията на бедствието на отдела.

The report details the deep fractures in the emergency readiness of the department, including transportation issues, risk assessment methodologies, missing mutual assistance agreements, timely evacuations and prison overcrowding. As of December, the California prison system was working at approximately 120% – or 16,000 people – over its designed capacity, according to the report.

“Not only are some prisons overcrowded, but the department is not able to evacuate the population and employees in most prisons within the first critical 72 hours of emergencies,” the report said. “Without the ability to quickly evacuate prisons, it is likely that wild fires, floods and earthquakes will lead to a loss of life in the closed population.”

In particular, the Inspector General found that none of the prisons includes a plan for the evacuation of deprived people outside their gates, but rather focuses on moving the “closed population to and from prison places”.

The report ended with a list of 18 recommendations, including those that will bring the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation in accordance with the rules of California around emergency planning.

Carly Partham, Assistant to Sociology at the University of Houston, who examines how disasters influence people who are closed, said the report is the “first step” in identifying more resources to support prisons and correction agencies while planning and preparing.

“I have never seen anything like that before,” Fradum said. “The prisons and adjustments agencies are very marginalized and isolated in the emergency planning space and disasters. The significant acceptance must be that we have not participated in these types of discussions and to expose the type of state level resources and accountability in these institutions.”

Defenders have been alarm for years because of the ways in which California prisons are not equipped to face climate hazards due to problems such as overcrowding and aging infrastructure. A A report of 2023 The UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the non -profit organization Ella Baker for Human Rights Chronicles these concerns and called on the state to implement precautions.

“People inside have the fear that the actual plan is to abandon them in the event of an emergency. It’s deeply anxious,” says James King, director of Ella Baker’s Human Rights Center programs. “In these public health crises, it will not only affect people in prisons, or in prison, or work there. This will affect the whole county, the whole community.”

These concerns were voiced by DAX Proctor, a state -owned Californians coordinator, united for a responsible budget, a state -owned coalition of organizations that view climate hazards as a key reason for closing prisons.

“The number one solution for dealing with these problems is to reduce the number of people imprisoned in California as quickly as possible,” Proctor said. “A good start would be those who are most vulnerable to climate hazards.”

Officials from the California Department of Amendment and Rehabilitation and the California Governor’s Emergency Service have answered questions about the report to the hearing legislators on Thursday. They assured the legislators that the department would not work alone in a major emergency.

“California has a huge amount of resources and we would largely rely on our federal, US and local partners to help us evacuate an entire prison,” says Melissa Pril, a special agent of the correctional safety service of the amendment department.

But Senator Laura Richardson, a Democrat from Inglewood, said that in an unpredictable situation, these partners “may be busy with the help of other people.”

“Let’s assume that these other agencies will be available to help you or help us in a prison environment, it’s not something, we move on, we have the freedom to accept,” Richardson said. “I would give this (the general office of the inspector) to your organization – I would consider it ‘F’ – honestly.”

Senator Kelly Seira, a Republican from Muruta, said he was not “extremely critically concerned.”

“I think we will spend a little about thinking, that we will have to evacuate whole prisons,” Seira said. “It’s just not practical to think that the whole prison will somehow ignite.”

In a statement to Calmatters, spokesman Mary Xjimenez said prisons were taking an approach to all queues to planning emergencies and that he coordinated his plans with the Governor’s Emergency Service. The Department “Follows the National FEMA Incident Management System, which is the national doctrine that provides all federal, state and local agencies to respond to a consistent set of principles, management structures and a systematic approach to emergency response.”

King said the department has a story that it is unprepared by climate hazards and instead responds to them after they inevitably appear.

“These are just facts,” King said. The department “could accept these facts and do something for them – or they can try to manage their response to the report. Disappointing, they seem to have chosen the latter. It is an opportunity to improve their response, to see the gaps and to create plans that relate to the gaps.”

Kayla Mihalovic is California local news.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.