Monday afternoon, June 29, Terry Hardy, a public information officer responded to the newspaper’s requests for comment on the COVID-19 outbreak at Susanville California Correctional Center.
On Thursday, June 25, the newspaper sent Hardy this email: “The real question up here in Lassen County has to be why would CDCR send inmates with COVID-19 to CCC? I understand the department plans to send (inmate) firefighters who test positive here. The current situation is we recently had four inmates who had previously tested negative transferred from San Quentin State Prison who later tested positive. So far, there are now 64 positive cases at CCC and county representatives expect that number to exceed 100 inmates by this afternoon. CCC has no medical facilities to speak of, and we are a rural county with a small hospital.
How did this happen and why? What is CDCR thinking? Any info or insight you could share with me would be appreciated.”
Here’s Hardy’s response: “Here is our statement. We are closely monitoring and quickly responding to positive cases of COVID-19 in state prisons, including at CCC. Additionally, we are working closely with the court-appointed Federal Receiver on inmate transfers, as well as public health agencies and stakeholders for the safety and security of our inmates, staff and communities.”
