As Health Conditions Worsen At Prison Holding 1,000 Detainees, Staff Fears A Riot
Despite workers’ alerts about the unsafe conditions at Victorville, little has been improved and infectious disease is rapidly spreading.
By Lauren Weber HEALTH 07/02/2018 10:10 pm ET Updated 2 hours ago
Staffers at a federal prison complex in Victorville, California, where the government recently sent 1,000 immigration detainees despite workers’ concerns about inadequate medical care, are speaking out about worsening conditions as infectious diseases continue to multiply.
HuffPost revealed last week that staff members were concerned about the unsafe conditions, which had resulted in 10 cases of scabies and one case of chickenpox. Now the outbreak of scabies, a highly infectious skin condition, has more than tripled ― spreading to at least 38 detainees. And, according to a letter sent to the staff June 30 and shown to HuffPost, an additional detainee has contracted chickenpox.
It’s gotten so bad that staffers are calling the units the two infected groups of detainees are housed in the “chickenpox unit” and “scabies unit,” and those exposed to chickenpox will live in a separate quarantined unit for 21 days, said John Kostelnik, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3969 and a case manager for the Victorville prison complex.
Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) toured Victorville on Monday morning with his district director and two staffers from the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). Takano said he was appalled when some of the detainees told him they had been unable to wash their clothes, underwear and bed linens since they arrived more than three weeks ago, and many had not been allowed to use the recreational facility at the complex northeast of Los Angeles. Several did not understand why they were being held in a prison.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/victorville-prison-detainees-medical-crisis_us_5b3abde8e4b07b827cb9ed38
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