AP — California corrections officials said Tuesday they will comply with a federal court order to move thousands of inmates out of two Central Valley prisons where an airborne fungus has led to widespread illnesses.
The department does not know yet where it will put the 2,600 displaced inmates as it juggles the population within the state's 33 adult prisons, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Deborah Hoffman told The Associated Press.
Officials could seek an extension if they cannot completely comply within the 90-day deadline set last week by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson in San Francisco.
Officials had said they might appeal Henderson's order but then decided to comply.
The judge's order requires corrections officials to transfer most black, Filipino and medically at-risk inmates from Avenal and Pleasant Valley state prisons because they are more vulnerable to health problems from Valley fever, a fungal infection that is not contagious and originates in the soil of the San Joaquin Valley.
About half of the infections produce no symptoms, while most of the rest can bring mild to severe flu-like symptoms. In a few cases, the infection can spread from the lungs to the brain, bones, skin or eyes, causing blindness, skin abscesses, lung failure and occasionally death.
The two prisons, which house a combined 8,100 inmates, are about 10 miles apart and 175 miles southeast of San Francisco.
"Transferring thousands of inmates is an extremely complex process. It will take time," Hoffman said. "We must identify where to send individual inmates and which inmates from other facilities can be transferred into Avenal and Pleasant Valley." continue reading...
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