NAME:____________________________ 1 2 CDCR#___________________________ 3 INSTITUTION:____________________ 4 ADDRESS:________________________ 5 6 ___________________________________ 7 CELL:__________ 8 9 Superior Court of California 10 ________________ County (Marin or conviction county) 11 12 13 In Re ________________, Court No: ________________ If known (your name) 14 Petitioner, Petition for Writ of 15 Habeas Corpus for vs. 16 Petitioner’s Immediate Release from San Quentin 17 Ron Bloomfield, Acting Warden of San Quentin State Prison During 18 State Prison; State of COVID-19 Outbreak 19 California, Date: ____________ For Court to fill 20 Time: ____________ Respondents. Dept: _____ 21 Petitioner _________________ requests this Court grant his Petition for 22 (your name) 23 24 - 1 - 25 San Quentin Habeas Petition In Re ___________ / Case no. ______ 26 27 28 1 Writ of Habeas Corpus and immediately release him from San Quentin 2 State Prison, where a massive outbreak of COVID-19 cases threatens his 3 health in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The issues are 4 5 1. Habeas corpus: immediate release pending decision 6 A writ of habeas corpus is the appropriate remedy for wrongful 7 imprisonment.1 Pending the outcome of habeas proceedings, the court may order Petitioner temporarily released from custody.2 If the claim 8 has merit and there is some urgency, the court may order the 9 custodian to show cause.3 Here, where Petitioner shows that continued confinement in San Quentin during the COVID-19 outbreak 10 poses dire health consequences, should he be released pending the 11 outcome of the habeas? 12 2. Eighth Amendment violation. 13 14 The State violates a prisoner’s Eighth Amendment right by subjecting him to conditions that pose an unreasonable risk of harm and by the 15 deliberate indifference of prison officials to protect him from harm.4 16 17 1 Fay v. Noia (1963) 372 U.S. 391, 401–402. 18 2 Id.; Pen. Code, § 1476 (court may “admit [the Petitioner] to bail, if the offense is bailable”); In re William M. (1970) 3 Cal.3d 16, 22 (minor ordered released pending habeas corpus petition’s determination); In re 19 Newbern (1960) 53 Cal.2d 786, 788 (petitioner released on own recognizance pending outcome of habeas corpus proceeding). 20 3 People v. Romero (1994) 8 Cal.4th 728. 21 4 U.S. Const. Amend. 8; Brown v. Plata (2011) 563 U.S. 493, 508-09; 22 Farmer v. Brennan (1994) 511 U.S. 825, 832-33 (1994); Estelle v. Gamble (1976) 429 U.S. 97; See Helling v. McKinney (1993) 509 U.S. 25, 33 23 (“That the Eighth Amendment protects against future harm to inmates is not a novel proposition”). 24 - 2 - 25 San Quentin Habeas Petition In Re ___________ / Case no. ______ 26 27 28 Here, Respondents caused a COVID-19 outbreak at San Quentin by 1 transferring afflicted prisoners into the facility. Positive cases are 2 increasing daily exponentially. Does Petitioner’s Eighth Amendment 3 right require the court to immediately release him from San Quentin to protect his health? 4 Statement of Facts 5 Currently, COVID-19 has afflicted more than 10 million and killed 6 over 500,000 people worldwide.5 The United States has the highest 7 number of confirmed cases in the world with almost 2.5 million 8 confirmed cases and nearly 125,000 deaths.6 These numbers are ever 9 growing. If death is avoided, lifelong repercussions are likely.7 Projections 10 of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that, without 11 effective public health intervention, more than 200 million people in the 12 13 14 15 16 5 Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, 17 https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/ bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 18 6 World Health Org., Coronavirus Disease (COVID-2019) Situation Reports – 93, (Apr. 22, 2020 https://www.who.int/docs/default- 19 source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200422-sitrep-93-covid- 19.pdf?sfvrsn=35cf80d7_4 20 7 See e.g., Melinda Wenner Moyer, Can Covid Damage the Brain?, N.Y. 21 Times (June 26, 2010) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/opinion/coronavirus-brain- 22 damage-dementia.html?referringSource=articleShare; Jason Horowitz, Surviving Covid-19 May Not Feel Like Recovery for Some (May 10, 2020) 23 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/world/europe/coronavirus- italy-recovery.html?referringSource=articleShare 24 - 3 - 25 San Quentin Habeas Petition In Re ___________ / Case no. ______ 26 27 28 1 United States could be infected with COVID-19, with as many as 1.7 2 million deaths in the most severe projections.8 3 1. Jails and prisons are epicenters for COVID-19. 4 Leading public health officials warned months ago that unless courts 5 act immediately, the “epicenter of the pandemic will be jails and 6 prisons.”9 As the CDC explained, correctional facilities “present[] unique 7 challenges for control of COVID-19 transmission among incarcerated/ 8 detained persons, staff, and visitors.”10 “Prisons are epicenters for 9 infectious diseases because of the higher background prevalence of 10 infection, the higher levels of risk factors for infection, the unavoidable 11 close contact in often overcrowded, poorly ventilated, and unsanitary 12 facilities, and the poor access to healthcare services relative to that in 13 community settings. Infections can be transmitted between prisoners, 14 staff and visitors, between prisons through transfers and staff cross- 15 deployment, and to and from the community. As such, prisons and other 16 17 18 8 Sheri Fink, Worst-Case Estimates for U.S. Coronavirus Deaths, N.Y. 19 Times (Mar. 18, 2020), https://nyti.ms/2JrLgal 20 9 Amanda Klonsky, An Epicenter of the Pandemic Will Be Jails and Prisons, if Inaction Continues, N.Y. Times (Mar. 16, 2020), 21 https://nyti.ms/3aycWX4 22 10 Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Interim Guidance on Management of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Correctional and 23 Detention Facilities (“CDC Guidance”) (Mar. 23, 2020), https://bit.ly/2ygqU1k 24 - 4 - 25 San Quentin Habeas Petition In Re ___________ / Case no. ______ 26 27 28 1 custodial settings are an integral part of the public health response to 2 coronavirus disease.”11 3 2. The San Quentin outbreak. 4 San Quentin State Prison is currently experiencing a massive 5 outbreak of the virus. The outbreak resulted from the May 3012 transfer 6 to San Quentin of 121 prisoners from the California Institution for Men 7 (CIM), which has been an early hotbed of virus cases in the state prison 8 system with 509 cases and 16 deaths.13 Before the transfer, San Quentin 9 had zero cases. The first incarcerated person at San Quentin inmate 10 tested positive on June 1, just two days after the transfer of prisoners 11 from CIM. The transferring prisoners had not been tested for two weeks 12 up to a month before the transfer.14 13 During a June 19 Case Management Conference in the Plata v. 14 Newsom COVID-19 litigation against CDCR—when the positive case 15 16 11 Stuart A Kinner, et al., Prisons and custodial settings are part of a comprehensive response to COVID-19, The Lancet, Vol 5 April 2020, p. 17 e188, www.thelancet.com/public-health. 18 12 All dates are in 2020, unless otherwise indicated. 19 13 https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/covid19/population-status-tracking/ 14 Cassidy, Megan and Fagone, Jason, 200 Chino inmates transferred to 20 San Quentin, Corcoran. Why weren’t they tested first? San Francisco Chronicle, June 8, 2020. 21 https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Coronavirus-and-prisons- Prisoners-went-weeks-15325787.php ; see also Botched Outbreak of 22 Covid-19 at San Quentin was Preventable, https://www.kqed.org/news/11823976/botched-outbreak-of-covid-19- 23 at-san-quentin-was-preventable-lawmaker-says; see also https://rbgg.com/wp-content/uploads/Joint-Statement-Re-Covid-19.pdf 24 - 5 - 25 San Quentin Habeas Petition In Re ___________ / Case no. ______ 26 27 28 1 count at San Quentin had climbed to 59—Judge Tigar of the Northern 2 District federal court called the fateful transfer a “significant failure of 3 policy and planning” by prison officials15 and said, “some people made a 4 bad mistake.”16 5 Since June 1, the number of confirmed cases has been exponentially 6 increasing at a rapid rate from zero to over 1,000 in just one month: 7 • 48 active cases, 2 weeks later (June 14); 8 • 152 cases, 6 days later (June 20); 9 • 338 cases, 2 days later (June 22); 10 • 456 cases, 2 days more (June 24); 11 • 539 cases, 2 days later (June 26); 12 • 1106 cases, 4 days later (June 30). 13 The number of cases has more than doubled in the four days from 14 June 26 to June 30.17 Put another way, the rate of infection per 1000 in 15 the U.S. is 7.0, in California 4.7, in CDCR 42.2 and in San Quentin 16 17 18 15 Plata v. Newsom, NO. CV 01-01351-JST (U.S. Dist. Ct. N.D.Ca.) Case 19 Management Conference, June 19, 2020 at pg. 12: lines 9-14. file:///C:/Users/Clara%20Foltz/Downloads/Dkt%203362%20[PLATA]% 20 20Transcript%20of%2006.19.20%20CMC_recd%2006.24.20_0489.OVR% 20(1).PDF 21 16 Ibid. 22 17 California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Population 23 Covid-19 Tracking, Accessed June 30, 2020, https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/covid19/population-status-tracking/. 24 - 6 - 25 San Quentin Habeas Petition In Re ___________ / Case no.