Sick inmates and their advocates fear deadly coronavirus infections

Nelson Clark Sims says he’s frightened.

He is jailed at Cois M. Byrd Detention Center in French Valley, where the vast majority of the early novel coronavirus infections of inmates and sheriff’s employees in Riverside County and one of the two inmate deaths were recorded. Sims, 61, who said he was under the impression that he would be sentenced to probation, pleaded guilty on Feb. 3 to charges that included driving under the influence while causing injury. Instead, he was sentenced to five years in state prison.

Then on Feb. 14, he said, he suffered a brain aneurysm in jail. Sims says he has asthma and needs a breathing machine to help him sleep. He is worried that his asthma makes him susceptible to contracting COVID-19.

He wants out, he said, before it’s too late.

“I’m going through hell,” Sims said in a phone call from jail. “I’m scared for my life.”

He’s one of many inmates in Southern California jails who have what are considered underlying conditions such as diabetes, asthma, cancer and heart and lung diseases that make them vulnerable to infection.

Some sheriffs are more reluctant than others to free them.

“Those of our clients who have underlying health situations, we are bringing their situations to the court and asking the court to release them on (their own recognizance) or lower the bail. Everyone who has been released is a life who has been saved,” Riverside County Public Defender Steve Harmon said during a virtual town hall meeting on Wednesday that included rights advocates and Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin.

Harmon’s office has been able to argue for such releases during arraignments, one of the few types of hearings still taking place.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said Thursday, May 14, that he has not released any inmates for medical reasons.

“I have no one in custody that should be released. I’m not going to release child molesters, rapists and attempted murder suspects simply because they’re overweight or have some other type of medical conditions,” he said.

The sheriff said he did not know how many of his inmates had such medical issues. He said none are being isolated and that they are being protected the same way other inmates are, through social distancing, wearing face masks and cleaning. Bianco said those efforts have been successful. As of Thursday, 190 total inmates had tested positive and 134 had recovered, according to the Public Health Department. The jails, with a capacity of 3,962, had 2,966 inmates as of Friday.

Daisy Ramirez, the jail conditions and policy coordinator for the ACLU in Orange County, found Bianco’s stance disturbing.

“The sheriff in Riverside (County) has been doing a horrible job as evidenced by the number of inmates infected, as well as staff. I think that speaks to how his approach has been failing,” she said.

Ramirez and other rights advocates in Southern California have been pressing sheriffs to release more inmates.

The ACLU has sued Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes.

The suit filed April 30 says the county has compiled a list of more than 500 medically vulnerable and disabled people in the jails but has not released any of them. Ramirez says the lawsuit seeks a reduction of the jail population to make social distancing possible and demands the county adhere to federal guidelines on supplying inmates with cleaning materials.

“People are terrified,” Ramirez said. “We believe every medically vulnerable individual should be released whether it’s pretrial or post-conviction. … Regardless of the crime.”

Sims, the state prisoner housed in Riverside County, was driving north on the 15 Freeway in Murrieta on May 13, 2018, after he said he drank three beers and smoked marijuana, according to a trial brief filed in Superior Court. A witness told investigators he saw Sims’ Ford Expedition swerve into a Cadillac SUV, causing the SUV to flip several times. The driver had minor injuries and a passenger suffered four fractured vertebrae, a broken toe and a concussion.

“How long will our sentence be?” the unidentified passenger said in a victim impact statement at the sentencing hearing in which she said she forgave Sims. “No lawyer or psychiatrist speaking for us in court to recommend release from the prison cell of our minds.”

Barnes responded to the ACLU lawsuit by saying that he had released many low-level offenders. Citing the lawsuit, the Sheriff’s Department on Friday declined to discuss its policy on releasing inmates with underlying medical conditions.

Jay Jordan is the executive director for Californians for Safety and Justice, an organization that advocates for public safety and former inmates trying to put their pasts behind them. He said reviewing ill inmates for public safety risk is a step in the right direction.

“If a person has underlying conditions and we know he is at a high risk of dying and he has months to go and he is elderly, what public health benefit do we have leaving a person in jail for a few months? It doesn’t make public safety any better,” he said.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department has not released anyone with such illnesses, spokeswoman Jodi Miller said. The jails can hold 7,400 inmates and this week they had a population of 4,776, Miller said, allowing jailers to provide inmates with plenty of separation. Some inmates who are ill or elderly have been assigned to separate housing units, she said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said starting Feb. 28, he began the release of some 4,200 inmates — 25% of the jails population — starting with those with less than 30 days left on misdemeanor sentences and those at risk for contracting coronavirus because of their health or age.

“In the wildest dreams of the ACLU and all the different groups that have been activists in that regard about the jail system, they never would have thought that possible. But we took the responsible approach,” Villanueva said at an April 13 news conference.

Sims is one of about 2,800 state prisoners jailed in a county lockup because prisons are not accepting new inmates in order to reduce the population during the pandemic. That means Bianco doesn’t even have the authority to free him. Sims must petition a judge for his release.

His new attorney, Michael LaCilento, filed a motion to withdraw the guilty plea. But LaCilento said he can’t even get an emergency hearing before a judge because the courts are closed for most cases.

On Thursday, the closures were extended to May 29.

“I’m very concerned,” LaCilento said. “He should be in some kind of medical ward, or out.”