*Inmates housed at Los Angeles County jails are deliberately trying to infect themselves with the coronavirus as a way to get out of jail free, so says the sheriff.
L.A. Sheriff Alex Villanueva called the activity “deeply disturbing” as the jail system has been rocked by a 60 percent jump in coronavirus cases in just one week, cbs.com reports.
Surveillance video shot on April 26 at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic allegedly shows inmates trying to contract the deadly contagion by sharing infected bottles and masks.
“There was some mistaken belief among the inmate population that if they tested positive, there was a way to force our hand and somehow release more inmates out of our jail environment, and that’s not gonna happen,” Villanueva said at a press conference.
In the video, Villanueva pointed to inmates drinking from the same hot water bottle prior to getting their temperature taken by a nurse.
“With the hot water, they were trying to falsely elevate their temperature readings to generate a symptom for COVID-19,” he said.
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‘Deeply Disturbing:’ LA County Jail Inmates Intentionally Trying To Contract Coronavirus https://t.co/b6YIBWDVJj pic.twitter.com/HulUhtN53A
— WJZ | CBS Baltimore (@wjz) May 12, 2020
The video also shows inmates sharing a Styrofoam cup, breathing into a common mask and not practicing distancing inside a common room.
“Then all of a sudden we saw a spike, a few weeks, ago, a very noticeable jump, and we couldn’t really understand why, when everything seemed to be going the way we wanted to,” said Villanueva.
Since February, L.A. County’s inmate population has been reduced from 17,000 to a little over 11,700.
“Had this pandemic swept through while we were sitting on 17,000 inmates, the results would have been catastrophic,” Villanueva said.
“There’s a reason why these people are behind bars to begin with, because they violated the norms of society,” he added. “But to then imperil not only their only safety, but the safety of their fellow inmates who did not want to participate in this behavior. It also endangers all the personnel, both the professional staff and the sworn staff.”
The are now 357 coronavirus cases within the LA jail system, a 60 percent jump from May 4 when there were 123 inmates infected, according to the report.
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