COVID-19 ripped through California’s oldest prison, San Quentin, after 121 men were transferred from the California Institution for Men in Chino in May. The outbreak became the deadliest in a California prison, leading to more than 2,200 infections and at least 28 deaths.
Graphic artist, comic book creator and self-described illustrative journalist Orlando Smith documented the terror that he and other inmates experienced during the outbreak, which collided with last summer’s uprisings.
Smith, 54, has been incarcerated more than 20 years, serving a 241-years-to-life sentence after a jury found him guilty of eight counts of second-degree robbery. During the pandemic lockdowns, inmates could not leave their cells, were fed boxed meals for weeks and showered once every few days.
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A spokesperson for the CDCR said the agency has asked some San Quentin inmates who are at a higher risk to contract the virus to voluntarily move to housing deemed safer than the facility's main dorm and open-cell housing.