ForThePeople Report 7.5.22 - Flipbook - Page 22
Prosecutor-Initiated Resentencing:
California’s Opportunity to Expand Justice and Repair Harm
Black, Latinx, and American Indian people are overrepresented in
California state prisons.
Figure 2: CA State Prisons & CA General Population – Comparison of Race/Ethnicity Distributions
4.1%
0.3%
1.2%
1.1%
2.1%
0.4%
0.4%
15.9%
19.3%
Black
Latinx
40.1%
White
Asian
44.8%
American Indian
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
Other
35.3%
29.3%
5.8%
CA State Prison Population (%)
CA General Population (%)
SOURCE: Author calculations based on California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) prison
population data (2021) and U.S. Census Bureau annual county population estimates (2010-2019).100
While California has made significant strides in the battle against COVID-19, the pandemic exposed the deep public
health disparities for incarcerated people. As of November 2021, 242 people had died from COVID-19,101 and the rate
of COVID-19 confirmed cases in CDCR facilities was 515 per every 1000 people—over four times the statewide rate.102
In 2020, flawed transfers by CDCR and overcrowding led to a major outbreak of the deadly virus at San Quentin
State Prison.103 A three-judge panel ruled that California had engaged in “deliberate indifference” in its failure
to diminish the risk of harm to people incarcerated at San Quentin.104 Advice by public health experts to halve
the prison population went unheeded,105 and by October 2020, a total of 2,200 incarcerated people—75% of the
population—at San Quentin had tested positive for COVID-19.106 Of those, at least 28 incarcerated people died,
as did one employee.107 A California Court of Appeal ordered Governor Newsom to reduce the population at San
Quentin State Prison to no more than 1,775 incarcerated people, requiring a nearly 40% reduction of the October
2020 population.108 While COVID-19 infection rates have since declined with the advent of effective vaccines, the
pandemic has revealed the perils of overcrowding and inadequate healthcare in the state prison system, dangers
that existed long before the COVID-19 pandemic.109
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