The family of a San Quentin inmate who contracted the coronavirus has filed the first death claim against the California correctional system related to the pandemic, citing the botched transfer of infected prisoners as the cause of his death.
Daniel Ruiz, 61, is one of 27 inmates and employees who died of virus-related illnesses after San Quentin, California’s oldest prison, took in 121 transfers from the California Institution for Men in Chino, which had become a hotbed for the virus.
Civil rights attorneys for Ruiz’s three children and his mother filed a legal claim Thursday that is a precursor to a lawsuit accusing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of wrongful and unconstitutional death. About 2,237 San Quentin inmates have tested positive for the virus, whereas before the May 30 transfer, no one had.
At the time of the moves, the Chino prison reported more than 600 cases of the coronavirus and nine COVID-19 deaths. During a state hearing, a federal monitor overseeing inmate health in the California prisons conceded three or four weeks had passed since some of the transferred inmates had been tested.
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