California's stricter COVID-19 vaccine mandate for prison employees appears to be on hold.
On Thursday, a Kern County Superior Court judge moved to block prison workers from being included in a statewide vaccination mandate, at the request of a prison guards' union. The Sacramento Bee first reported the news.
The original health order, set to go into effect on Friday, applied to corrections officers in healthcare settings and would have removed the option for unvaccinated employees to opt for twice-weekly testing instead of getting their shots.
"What I don't want to do is I don't want to put somebody in a situation where there’s something that happens to them that truly is irremediable," Kern County Judge Bernard Barmann said, according to the paper.
In reaction to the judge's ruling, UC Hastings Law Professor Hadar Aviram said it's "as if the vaccine is something that harms you in some way, that you should be offered a remedy. I am going to submit that getting long COVID or dying from COVID is irremediable."
In a separate case, a federal judge issued an order last month requiring the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to come up with a plan for a vaccine mandate for all employees who enter CDCR institutions.
According to the ruling by U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in Oakland, "mandatory staff vaccination policy would lower the risk of preventable death and serious medical consequences among incarcerated persons. And no one has identified any remedy that will produce anything close to the same benefit."
Tigar added that over 50,000 people incarcerated in California state prisons have been infected with COVID-19. At least 240 have died, as well as 39 prison staff.
Now, Gov. Gavin Newsom is joining CDCR in appealing Tigar's order. They filed an appeal earlier this week.
CDCR told KCBS Radio in a statement that over 60% of staff are fully vaccinated and the rest are tested twice a week. Meanwhile, 77% of incarcerated individuals are fully vaccinated.
"Under current guidelines, CDCR continues to maintain staffing levels needed to ensure the safe and orderly operation of facilities and access to services for incarcerated people and to protect both those incarcerated and staff," a spokesperson with the governor's office told KCBS Radio in a statement. "CDCR continues to work to ensure all incarcerated people and staff, including custodial staff, are safe from COVID-19 and any other potential threats.”
Aviram, whose expertise centers on criminal justice, civil rights and politics, said she was astonished that "the appeal is supported by the whole mechanism of the state," including Gov. Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta.
"I cannot even begin to speculate what is going on," she said. "I will say that the guard's union has contributed very generously to his anti-recall campaign."
According to the Sacramento Bee, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association donated $1.75 million to Governor Newsom's campaign.
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