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Threat of coronavirus outbreak latest trouble at decaying SF jail
Health care workers at San Francisco's troubled county jail are preparing for the worst amid the threat of the coronavirus.
SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - San Francisco officials announced on Tuesday that County Jail #4 will finally shut down in September.
Mayor London N. Breed and Sheriff Paul Miyamoto said the jail, located at the Hall of Justice, will close on September 5.
City lawmakers have proposed closing the jail on the top floor of San Francisco’s Hall of Justice for years over unsafe conditions. Last year Breed announced plans to move incarcerated people out of the jail no later than July 2021.
In May, the Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance authored that moved the proposed closure date to no later than November 1, 2020.
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County Jail #4 is the third jail that San Francisco will have closed since 2010, city officials said.
Breed said the closure is part of the city's broader efforts to reallocate resources towards alternatives to incarceration such as diversion programs.
RELATED: Inmates at San Francisco County jails can now make free phone calls amid COVID-19
Sheriff Paul Miyamoto said since he took office, he has been committed to closing the jail facility. " It had outlived its useful life and was seismically unsafe, putting the people in custody, Sheriff’s staff, contractors and the visiting public at risk,” Miyamoto said.
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Jail and prison facilities throughout the state have been worked to reduce population sizes since the onset of COVID-19 as congregate living environments bring about greater risks of exposure to the virus.
There are currently 77 people housed at County Jail #4. City officials said other San Francisco jails have the capacity to absorb additional people in custody.
Inmates at County Jail #4 will be rehoused at either County Jail #5 in San Bruno or County Jail #2 in San Francisco.
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Cases of coronavirus have skyrocketed inside California’s San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, with many blaming prison officials and calling the surge ‘preventable.’