The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal from San Quentin prison officials to grant them immunity from lawsuits stemming from a COVID-19 outbreak at the prison in May 2020 that killed 26 imprisoned people and one corrections officer, the LA Times reports.
The outbreak occurred after prison officials moved 122 individuals from the California Institution for Men in Chino, where COVID had spread through the prison, killing nine and infecting 600, to San Quentin, which was COVID-free at the time. In just a matter of days, there were 25 cases at San Quentin, which increased to 499 three weeks later and to more than 2,000 imprisoned individuals and 270 staff members by early September.
The Times reports that the Court’s denial means that the families of those who died, as well as the staff and incarcerated people who were infected but survived, can continue with their “four major lawsuits.”