An article in the Davis Vanguard on January 22, 2012, Santa Rita Jail’s COVID-19 Outbreak Triggered by Surge in Staff Cases, includes commentary by RBGG attorneys who represent prisoners at the facility.
According to the article, “Lawyers from Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld wrote to Judge Nathanael Cousins expressing concern about SRJ’s COVID-19 response, particularly the rising population and impact of staff cases on the general population. Attorneys Kara Janssen and Jeffrey Bornstein stated that they ‘remain concerned that introduction of the virus by staff is inevitable as the number of cases in the community rises.’ Furthermore, they urged the Sheriff to ‘reduce the jail population, in order to make social distancing, modified programming, isolation, and quarantine easier.’ Janssen also spoke about Alameda County’s zero-bail policy, which helped reduce the population at the beginning of the pandemic. Since zero bail only works once for offenders, a growing number of people who are re-offending while out on zero bail, are not eligible for the zero-bail again, contributing to the population spikes.”