California detainees describing the conditions of detention of maggots and mice falling in a dining room

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – Maggots and mice have fallen on the dining tables of inmates in a state prison in California, where holes in the roof also allow rain and bird droppings to be found. Infiltrate and mark the walls, according to a lawsuit brought by a detainee in the state. Do not move fast enough to repair deteriorating prisons.

California has committed $ 260 million over four years to repair leaky roofs and eliminate dangerous molds in more than two dozen deteriorating jails, with over $ 1 billion in overhead maintenance costs dollars.

The lawsuit calls for faster action and includes examples of problems encountered in the details that upset the stomach.

Mice fell twice on the dining table and rushed into a dishwashing area in April 2018, said inmate Marvin Dominguez, who eats twice a day in the dining room of the drug treatment center. addiction in California and Corcoran State Prison. Then a larval larva fell on its plateau in October.

A guard advised him to sit at a different table, he said.

Disclosure occurs in a context of close scrutiny of prison conditions nationwide. Other reports indicate a lack of heat in February in federal detention centers in the Brooklyn district of New York and near Los Angeles, as well as poor medical care and unsafe conditions in the centers. federal immigration.

Inmate Robert Escareno, who sued in California, told the court how bird droppings are painting the dining room wall. He claims that mold and other contaminants aggravate his allergies.

State officials do not deny the problem but say that they repair the roofs as fast as they can. They accuse the detainees of attracting vermin by throwing food and hiding the alcohol they called "pruno" in the damaged ceiling.

Inmates' lawyers said that the trial Corcoran Prison was a symptom of a system-wide problem.

"Roofs are collapsing everywhere," said Don Specter, director of the nonprofit penitentiary law office, who represents Escareno. "They recognize the need for roofs, (but) they do not make the necessary arrangements so that people are not injured in the meantime."

In addition to mold, leaking roofs break down electrical systems, including lighting, fire alarm control panels and fire suppression systems, according to prison authorities.

The roofs of eight of California's 34 prisons have been replaced, but there are still 20. Governor Gavin Newsom's budget includes replacing the roofs of two prisons, leaving 18 of them to be replaced and repaired.

It took almost two years to design the new Corcoran prison dining room roof, and prison officials could not say when construction would begin.

This led Judge Donna Tarter of the Kings County Superior Court to make a half-joke during the trial, that the roof "will probably not be repaired in our lifetime." She expects to decide by May if she orders the prison to close the dining room and feed about 800 inmates in their dormitories, an interim measure which, according to the authorities, would result in considerable practical complications while disrupting penitentiary programs.

The more general problem of roof leaks could jeopardize California's efforts to keep the prison population below the threshold imposed by federal judges in order to improve conditions of detention.

In March, prison secretary Ralph Diaz told lawmakers that a leaky roof could create problems if inmates were to be moved from cells. The state has about 3,300 prisoners below the ceiling but plans to drastically reduce this margin when it will bring 1,400 inmates to a private jail outside the state in June.

"The cushion is not as sturdy as we would like it," Diaz said.

The problem in Corcoran is that a rainwater leak has destroyed indoor ceiling slabs so often that the prison no longer replaces them, said prison lieutenant Michael Owens on behalf of the state. Inmates then throw food on the ventilation system through the ceiling openings, he said, attracting flies that produce worms that fall from the ceiling. He also recounted how he ordered detainees' workers to regularly clean bleached walls with bleach.

Assistant Warden Jason Collins and Lt. Nicholas Tyler blamed "pruno" – an illegal fermented liquor from remaining fruit with a little bread to provide yeast.

The detained workers are probably on top of the kitchen carts to hide 5 to 7 kilograms of the sticky substance over a ventilation duct in the deteriorating ceiling area in November, Tyler said. Collins said he discovered another batch of hidden objects in February, where he was attracting flies.

The roof of the dining room also attracts a lot of pigeons. There they pooped and birds perished, their rubbish washed in the building when it rains, said an architect, engineer and licensed building contractor, Steven Norris.

"We all know that the prison is not supposed to be comfortable," said detainee Escareno to the judge, "but at the same time, it's not designed for me to have to go eat in a place where I find myself at a distance from what I know to be feces of birds. "