Many at Rubicon don’t have to stretch their imaginations very far to picture the horrific conditions in California prisons in the face of the COVID pandemic and, now, the raging wildfires—they’ve been there. For Participant Advisory Board (PAB) and staff member Gail Thomas, hearing about the death and suffering of inmates is like a punch to the gut. “That could have been me. That could have been my family members. Those are my family members,” she says.   

Gail spent seven years in Chowchilla and another state prison, where she worked as an infirmary porter, and her husband, Alex Thomas, also a Rubicon participant, was a janitor in the infirmary during his time in San Quentin. From these collective experiences, and from talking to loved ones who are currently incarcerated, she knows one thing for sure: “There is no way they can do social distancing.”  

Gail’s voice hardens as she recalls packed cafeterias, cramped, understaffed medical facilities, and terminally ill prisoners dying alone.  

This personal connection is one reason Gail, Alex, and other members of the PAB have joined the movement to demand the release of elderly and medically vulnerable prisoners specifically and, more generally, to depopulate California prisons. Through writing letters, speaking out in public forums, and getting their personal stories out there, they are putting the pressure on Governor Gavin Newsom and other state policymakers to rethink the prison-industrial status quo during this unprecedented public health disaster.   

The push to depopulate the state’s overcrowded prisons has become an urgent outcry during the pandemic; the virus has turned prisons into hot zones, killing incarcerated people and staff alike at rates that are outstripping the rest of the country. According to a New York Times database, San Quentin has become one of the country's largest virus clusters with more than 2,200 infections and 26 deaths, and other facilities are not far behind. In June, after touring San Quentin and observing unsafe conditions that were allowing the virus to rage through the population, University of California health experts advised the prison to cut its population by 50%. Other overcrowded state prisons should follow suit, the experts said.  

The total number of people incarcerated in California prisons is about 100,000. The state has released or plans to release approximately 11,500 inmates by the end of the month–mostly “non-violent offenders with less than a year to serve,” according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.    

Rubicon Impact Coach Roosevelt Terry sees the state’s mishandling of the pandemic in the prison system as a gross human rights violation. Roosevelt’s son, who is serving 17 years in California State Prison-Solano, tells his father about daily protests in the yard demanding the release of sick and vulnerable inmates. “The constant fear of contracting the virus is eminent, and the idea of surviving in extended isolation lockdowns to mitigate the spreading virus is haunting [my son],” Roosevelt says.   

Roosevelt hopes corporations and other entities will step up to the plate to help with the greatest problem facing inmates who are released early: housing. As of now, it is up to relatives, probation officers, and community organizers, who are scrambling to solve the housing crisis for early-release inmates, some of whom pose a public health risk because they have been paroled while still contagious, according to the LA Times. 

There are no easy solutions, but for Gail and Roosevelt, depopulation is an imperative first step. The PAB is currently working to ensure they are poised to impact legislation. As she continues to hear horror stories from loved ones who are incarcerated, Gail is feeling the urgency of the moment. “I don’t just want to do something—I have to do something,” she says.