‘Deeply disturbing’: LA prisoners filmed trying to catch coronavirus in hope of early release

County sheriff said 21 cases have now been reported in prison area where inmates deliberately shared cups and masks

Footage has emerged of inmates at a California jail faking the symptoms of coronavirus, as well as deliberately trying to infect themselves and each other with it in hope of being granted early release.

The video from Pitchess Detention Center-North County Correctional Facility was shown at a press conference by LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who called it “deeply disturbing”. The men can be seen sharing bottles and masks to expose themselves to the pathogen. Narrating the footage, Sheriff Villanueva explained how the plan worked.

“That’s the hot water dispenser there … and they’re gonna start passing the hot water bottle to each other. You see the handoff? And they’re going to be sharing swigs from the same bottle of water.

“Right after this video was taken, the nurse came up to take their temperatures. And with the hot water, they were trying to falsely elevate their temperature to generate a symptom for Covid-19.”

Jumping to another incident captured on video, the sheriff described an even more aggressive attempt to pick up the infection.

“Now this is another one, and you can see now they’re gonna use a mask … they also use a styrofoam cup, and they’re gonna share the styrofoam cup. Same process as they did with the water bottle, but now they’re also sniffing out of a common mask.”

The plan has not seen any of the filmed prisoners released early, but it did achieve its first objective: to spread the virus.

“It’s sad to think that someone would deliberately try to expose themselves to Covid-19. As a result of this behaviour, from this particular module 21 inmates tested positive for Covid-19 within a week of these videos being taken.”

The prospect of prison epidemics is worrying authorities across the US, with thousands of inmates now testing positive or quarantined. The same holds true in Los Angeles: according to the sheriff’s office, there are currently 4,590 inmates quarantined in the county’s jails, with 317 isolated.

The county has made ambitious efforts to protect inmates and reduce the risk of what could be a devastating outbreak in prisons, reducing its prison population by some 5,000 since the pandemic hit California.

It has also reined in arrests, instructing police to issue citations instead whenever they can, and tested all inmates entering the prison system.

Whatever hopes the California inmates caught on camera may have had were bluntly dashed at the sheriff’s press conference.

“Somehow there was some mistaken belief among the inmate population that if they tested positive that there was a way to force our hand and somehow release more inmates out of our jail environment,” he said, “and that’s not gonna happen.”