After opposition from California's prison guards' union and Governor Gavin Newsom, it has officially been determined that staff working in the state's correctional facilities do not need to get vaccinated against COVID-19, as first reported by Courthouse News Service.
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On Monday a panel of federal judges vacated an order passed by U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in Oakland last year requiring mandatory vaccination for prison staff, asserting that it would "lower the risk of preventable death and serious medical consequences among incarcerated persons," as previously reported by KCBS Radio.
Tigar's order was subsequently temporarily blocked by another judge, and has been hotly debated since, with the California Correctional Peace Officers Association arguing vehemently against, stating that 700 guards are up for retirement, and "some correctional staff may do so rather than continue to work in the face of a vaccine mandate," according to Monday's decision.
The San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit panel ultimately agreed with the union's argument on Monday, stating that the plaintiff was unable to prove the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation acted with "deliberate indifference" to inmate health and safety by not mandating vaccination for all staff, which would have violated the Eighth Amendment.
The panel said that the department wasn't indifferent based on other actions taken to address the pandemic, including "making vaccines and booster doses available to prisoners and correctional staff, enacting policies to encourage and facilitate staff and prisoner vaccination, requiring staff to wear personal protective equipment, and ensuring unvaccinated staff members regularly test for COVID-19," said the decision.
Despite the fact that "in the absence a full staff vaccination mandate, CDCR experienced approximately 2.5 times the infection rate of the California general population during the peak of the Omicron variant," the vaccination mandate was overturned.
The panel consisted of U.S. Circuit Judges Morgan Christen and Daniel Bress, and U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman of the Northern District of Illinois.
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