As Covid Cases Jump Over 1500% in Santa Rita Jail,
​Advocates Will Rally in Dublin to Demand Releases

Oakland, CA—Following a huge spike in COVID-19 cases inside Santa Rita Jail, Decarcerate Alameda County - a coalition of advocates, attorneys, incarcerated people and family members - will hold a mock funeral procession and march in Dublin to demand immediate action to protect the lives of those incarcerated inside the jail. To date, Santa Rita Jail has reported 101 total new cases in the incarcerated population. This wave of infections represents an over 1,500 percent increase in total cases in a matter of days.
The recent outbreak in San Quentin demonstrates that it only takes a single event – a transfer, or contact with infected staff – to cause a deadly outbreak. 

Coalition members will be calling for immediate action and outlining demands informed by the needs of incarcerated people, through their communication with National Lawyers Guild-SF attorneys and the Santa Rita Jail Hotline: 
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• Release all incarcerated people on pretrial to await their court dates in the community. Use this opportunity to create appropriate social distancing and provide medical care to incarcerated people who have been sentenced.
• Release sick incarcerated people who require medical care so that they can receive treatment at an adequate medical facility, not in jail.
• Cancel the Sheriff’s contract with Federal Marshals, meaning a reduction in the jail’s population by the 400-500 federal incarcerated people currently held at Santa Rita.
• Test all incarcerated people upon their release, and test people after 4 days of being under in-custody quarantine.
• Provide wraparound services such as housing and health care when incarcerated people are released.
• Make testing available at least once per month to every person held inside the jail. Provide appropriate and necessary care (such as extra blankets and more out of cell time) so that quarantine is not a punishment.
• Provide free, daily access to phone calls.
• Conduct unannounced inspections by an independent third party. Planned, guided tours of Santa Rita serve less as an opportunity to assess jail conditions, and more as an opportunity for the jail to “clean up its act” for its visitors, which benefits only the jail’s fiction that it is following its own policies. Allow independent third parties to review incarcerated people’s grievances.
• Create real consequences for deputies who fail to wear personal protective equipment. Deputies who refuse to wear masks should be disciplined and face consequences for this dangerous behavior.

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