Bay Area

COVID Prison Release to Start With Non-Violent Inmates Over Age 30

Published

5 years ago

July 15, 2020

By Quinci LeGardye | California Black Media

Prison officials announced July 10 that an estimated 8,000 incarcerated individuals will be eligible for early release by the end of August in order to stem the COVID-19 outbreak in California’s prison system.

“These actions are taken to provide for the health and safety of the incarcerated population and staff,” California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Secretary Ralph Diaz said. “We aim to implement these decompression measures in a way that aligns with both public health and public safety.”

Multiple prisons in California have become COVID-19 hotspots recently. According to the CDCR, 2,286 incarcerated people have tested positive for the virus and 31 have died across the state’s prison system as of July 10.

CDCR prison population reduction guidelines prioritize the release of incarcerated people who have 365 days or less to serve in their sentences; are not currently serving time for domestic violence or violent crimes, and have no convictions that require them to register as sex offenders. While individuals age 30 and over who meet these criteria are immediately eligible for release, those aged 29 or younger will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

“We have an unprecedented moment in time to actually augment the work of prison reform and the reduction of the already overcrowded conditions that have persisted,” said Joe Paul, managing director of the Los Angeles Regional Reentry Partnership and director of Political and Civic Affairs at the City of Refuge Church-L.A.

The announcement follows a July 8 press conference organized by the #StopSanQuentinOutbreak Coalition to amplify concerns of the people incarcerated at San Quentin, the oldest prison in California.

Some elected officials attended the press conference, including Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) and Assemblymembers Marc Levine (D-San Rafael), Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), and Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), as well as family members and friends of people currently incarcerated at San Quentin in Marin County.

According to the CDCR, San Quentin, which is a men’s prison, has had 1,880 positive cases among its incarcerated population and staff as of July 10. In June, Amend at UC San Francisco, an advocacy organization focused on changing negative aspects of correctional culture, and Berkeley Public Health released a memo calling for the state to reduce the prison population to below 50% of its current capacity.

During a press conference last week, Gov. Newsom acknowledged the problem at San Quentin.

“It’s a concern, always has been. We have not been shy about leaning in on this over the course of many, many months,” said the governor. “We still have a lot more work to do and we recognize our responsibility.”

As a longer-term strategy to reduce the state’s prison population beyond the San Quentin drawdown, Paul said decision-makers in California’s criminal justice system should “assess the state’s prison population and identify low-risk or elderly inmates that could successfully do the minimum required time for their conviction and receive adequate rehabilitative support, while incarcerated.”

“Then they should be released based on good behavior and other suitability conditions for successful reintegration into community,” he continued.

California Black Media also spoke with James King, a member of the #StopSanQuentinOutbreak Coalition and state campaigner for the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center for Human Justice.

“We [the Coalition] continue to agree with the public health experts who have said that at least a 50% reduction in the incarceration rate is necessary for public health safety, not just for people inside the prison but people outside of prison,” the activist said.

But he says getting to the 50% goal will not be immediate.

“This is less than a 10% reduction, over the course of several months. So it’s really modest. It’s an improvement, but it’s an incremental one. We need bold, decisive action here,” King said.

Previously incarcerated at San Quentin, King was released last December. For him, there are other ways the state could assist incarcerated people once they are released.

“According to the CDCR, about 70% of people consistently have somewhere to go. Also, there’s Project Roomkey, in which the state has paid for several hotel rooms,” King continued. “Our suggestion would be that they be allowed to go there for the first 14 days post-release in order to safely quarantine, and then return to their families.”

At the press conference, Assemblymember Levine called for sustained action.

“We must sustain our attention here at San Quentin, and at every facility where people are sentenced for time and locked up across the state of California,” he said. “We need to sustain this attention because unfortunately COVID-19 is not going away. So we can’t let our guard down.”

Activists say they want the state to base inmate releases on data and best practices learned from past experience.

“The science of people aging out of crime, as well as the CDCR’s own risk assessments that have identified tens of thousands of people as low risk for recidivism or violence” should be the criteria, King said. “And we stand by ready to help facilitate and use our resources to facilitate safe reentry.”

By Quinci LeGardye | California Black Media

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

2 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

1 week ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

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Activism

Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

1 week ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.