The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The temporary scrapping of the program at Pleasant Valley was welcomed by Jesse Garcia, a Fresno man whose 37-year-old son, Javier, a former inmate at the prison, died Friday of valley fever meningitis." I'm glad to hear they are going to stop it," Garcia said. "It's a horrible thing to have to see."

Although the number of valley fever deaths at the four Kern County prisons doesn't compare to Pleasant Valley's, its rate of civilian infection is the highest in the state, according to the Department of Health Services.

"Kern County is generally considered to be ground zero for valley fever in California," said health department spokesman Ken August.

The deferral of construction at Pleasant Valley is part of a significant modification to the infill portion of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's $7.9 billion plan to solve the state's inmate overcrowding crisis by adding 53,000 new beds.
"Infrastructure capacity issues" and a failure to get the Legislature to approve a "design-build" construction process that would have speeded up the building effort has resulted in a five-month delay for the expansion program, said Deborah Hysen, the prison agency's chief deputy secretary in charge of facilities, planning and construction.

Initially, prison officials had hoped to obtain permission in July from the State Public Works Board to move forward. Hysen said the agency is now planning to go to the board in December.

The expansion plans at existing prisons are a key component of the Assembly Bill 900 plan approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the spring. The original plan called for initially adding 12,000 beds at 10 prisons, eventually growing to 16,000. But assessments of the 10 sites turned up significant issues that have held up the program, Hysen said.

At Pleasant Valley, the issue was valley fever.

Local public health officials, prison doctors and academic experts had recommended in a report commissioned by federal medical care receiver Robert Sillen that the state refrain from prison building in the southern San Joaquin Valley, especially at Pleasant Valley. More than 900 cases of the disease have been reported at the one prison in the past four years.

Hysen said the report prompted the state to hold off on the infill plan at Pleasant Valley. "We've just deferred it because we think until such time as we have a really good plan, we want to make sure, we want to be responsive to the report," Hysen said.

Construction of a state mental health hospital next door to the prison coincided with the valley fever outbreak at the prison, and the experts feared the building program would stir up more spores rom the soil and result in additional infections.

A spokeswoman for the receiver's office, set up by U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson last year to take charge of medical
care in the state's 33 prisons, also welcomed the decision to defer construction at the prison.

"We're pleased they're taking it very seriously and that the department is planning to take actions that keep inmates and staff health in mind," spokeswoman Rachael Kagan said Tuesday.

Five of the 12 inmate deaths at Pleasant Valley were reported by the Kern County coroner's office, in data compiled by The Bee. Fresno County reported four more. Kagan said the receiver's office found at least two valley fever fatalities there last year. Garcia's death last week brought the number to at least 12.

"I'd rather it be shut down, not the prison itself, but as far as adding on to it," Jesse Garcia said in an interview. "Every time they disturb the ground, it's going to happen."

Dr. Edward Moreno, the public health officer of Fresno County, said that if "construction were to continue" at Pleasant Valley, "it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect that we could continue to see more cases" of valley fever at the prison.

"It's really up to the legislators to decide, but they really need to take this into consideration," Moreno said. "It sounds like CDCR is
taking this into consideration."

Kagan said that covering the soil and reducing dust can put a damper on the spread of valley fever spores.
But Dr. Michael MacLean, the public health officer in adjacent Kings County, where at least three inmates at two prisons have died of died of valley fever in the past three years, said "we really don't know an effective way" to mitigate the spread of infections.

"Until that question is answered, it really is foolish to put more beds in (more critical) areas," MacLean said. "We have good evidence that prisoners are being adversely affected by this disease, disproportionately."

ABOUT THE WRITER:

The Bee's Andy Furillo can be reached at (916) 321-1141 or afurillo@ sacbee.com.