A group of inmates from Los Angeles County deliberately tried to infect themselves with the coronavirus as they believe that if they get sick, they would be released, the sheriff said in a statement on May 11.
Deliberately contracting COVID-19
The disturbing video was released on May 11 by Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, and in the video, it showed inmates at North County Correctional Facility in Castaic drinking from the same bottle of hot water and taking turns breathing through the same mask.
Sheriff Villanueva called the behavior of the inmates disturbing. He said in a statement that 21 men tested positive for COVID-19 within a week because of the behavior seen in the video. The officials were prompted to review the surveillance video because of the sudden spike in coronavirus cases in mid-April in the county jail.
Villanueva added that there was a mistaken belief among the inmates that if they contract the coronavirus, the authorities will be forced to release them early, but Villanueva said that it is not going to happen.
All 21 people who tested positive were from the same module where the video was taken. In all, the module had about 50 inmates. Officials believe that the inmates were using the hot water to raise their temperatures because fever is a symptom of the disease.
All inmates have access to their own cup and the hot water dispenser, and there is no reason for them to share. Even after being caught, none of the inmates admitted to trying to infect themselves or faking their temperature. Sheriff Villanueva said the behavior imperiled the safety of other inmates as well as the safety of the staff.
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In March, the sheriff announced that some inmates had been released early. Police departments had also been asked to cite offenders rather than arrest to keep the jail populations low during the pandemic. The process began in February, and it resulted in a reduction of about 5,000 inmates, from more than 17,000 to around 11,700.
Sheriff Villanueva said that if the pandemic swept through while they were sitting on 17,000 inmates, the results in the jail would have been catastrophic. As of May 11, there have been 4,590 inmates have been quarantined within the Los Angeles County jail system, 317 of whom were isolated.
There have been 357 inmates who have tested positive for COVID-19, but 117 have since been classified as fully recovered. Inmates have to have at least two negative tests before they are allowed to return to the general population. Villanueva also said that the department is doing everything to prevent the spread of the virus in the jail system.
Coronavirus update
In April, there were 3,300 inmates who all tested positive in four U.S state prisons, but 96% of the patients did not show any symptoms of COVID-19. The four state prisons were Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia, and Ohio.
The numbers of positive patients with no symptoms suggest that people who are asymptomatic may be driving the spread of the virus, not only in state prisons but across the globe. The high number of infected inmates also reinforces questions over whether testing of just those with symptoms is actually helping in flattening the curve.
