Judge orders prison guards in California to be vaccinated

A federal judge ruled Monday that California prison guards and other facility employees will be required to get COVID-19 vaccines in the next two weeks. 

Judge Jon S. Tigar’s ruling will impact 66,000 prison employees and any inmates working outside of the prisons, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. 

“Defendants have undertaken significant measures to combat the virus,” Tigar wrote in his ruling. “But the virus continues to infect the prison population, including incarcerated persons who have accepted the vaccine — one of whom recently died from the disease — and outbreaks create significant risks of harm beyond the risk of infection.”

Tigar added that more than 50,000 incarcerated people in California’s state prisons had been infected with the coronavirus and that the virus’s “dominant route” of entry into the prisons had been via staff. 

Currently, 76 percent of California’s prisoners have been fully vaccinated, and 99 percent of prisoners have been offered the vaccine, a spokeswoman from the California Department of Corrections told The Hill. She added that 57 percent of prison staff were fully vaccinated.

Yet this decision was opposed by the department.

“We are evaluating the court’s order at this time to determine next steps,” California Department of Corrections press secretary Dana Simas said in an email statement to The Hill. “We respectfully disagree with the finding of deliberate indifference, as the department has long embraced vaccinations against COVID-19, and we continue to encourage our staff, incarcerated population, volunteers, and visitors to get vaccinated.”

Simas added that the department was “one of the earliest adopters of the COVID-19 vaccine” with vaccination efforts beginning at the end of 2020. 

Other prison employee unions and groups have also opposed the mandates, citing safety concerns if prisons are short staffed.

“We’ve undertaken an aggressive, voluntary vaccination program and we still believe the voluntary approach is the best way forward,” California Correctional Peace Officers Association President Glen Stailey said in a statement to the Chronicle. “We are looking into our legal options to address this order.”