Not to die. Very clearly france is under. If we are attacked it is for our values for our taste for freedom for this possibility on our soil the belief really not to give in to any mind of terror so i say it with great clarity once again we will not give in european leaders are introducing strict measures in response to rising corona virus infection as far as going to a month Long National down spains catalonia region is shutting its borders in 15 days in germany nationwide restrictions will come into force from under. The u. S. Or another record daily rise uncovered 19 cases almost 84000 were reported on thursday. President trump and his democratic challenger joe biden have been holding competing rallies in the battleground state of florida with just 5 days to go until the election a record breaking 18000000 americans have already cast early in person or 1000000 votes u. S. Retail giant walmart is removing guns and ammunition from its sales floor was in response to racial unrest in philadelphia a curfew is in place there are the 2 nights of violence over the killing of Walter Wallace the latest black person to die at the hands of police while walmart to remove weapons from display it will still sell them newspapers and nongovernmental organizations have been raided by indian authorities alleging kashmiri separatist activities the National Investigation agency seized documents and devices from the homes and offices of journalists and activists has been criticized as a crackdown on dissent so those are the headlines the news continues here on aljazeera after faultlines statement thanks so much and i for. Its one of the most consequential elections in u. S. History and al jazeera will be there every step of the way 9 hours of live coverage up to the minute results as they come in with correspondents across the u. S. And the rest of the world aljazeera brings you a unique global perspective on the u. S. Elections 2020. 30. In august we received phone calls from inside californias oldest prison san quentin how are you doing. A number of inmates at san quentin who are now positive for cover 1000 over the weekend more than 2000 men are over half of the incarcerated population tested positive for corona virus despite being on lockdown since march of fishes called it the biggest Prison Health catastrophe in the states history. Uninsured and those we tracked down described their fear and anger whats your experience been like these last 2 months were. Very. They were trapped in tiny cells or shared dorms going days without showers and fresh air illness and deaths around about. How concerned are you about your own health. And. Their families wanted them out of. This group of activists and relatives of incarcerated people are marching band clinton right now where theyre calling for more humane conditions that i was in and i want to also faultlines investigates how san quentin prison became the site of one of the largest coronavirus outbreaks in the United States was. A virus likely came to san quentin from this prison 7 hours south of the California Institution for men or cia its located in chino not far from los angeles when the pandemic hit the prison was at nearly 120 percent capacity more than 3000. 00 men many of them were housed in tight dormitories toilets showers and sinks. A perfect breeding ground for covert 1000. Belindas fiance Marcos Trevino was serving a life sentence as. We would crack you gave me joy. Belinda was worried when she heard about the 1st covert 1000 cases at the prison marcos was a diabetic and had other medical conditions that put him at high risk i think the majority of good time he was trying to keep me from worrying because he would tell me its not in my yard i would tell him are the guards wearing gloves or anything like that and he said. Thats not going to happen here he said they dont care about it i used to tell him make a mask of your socks because its killing people marcus got sick in may by that time the prison had reported more than 500 cases he called me he said dont worry. Theyre quarantining me for 14 days ill call you when i get out he says i have a little fever. You know you recall. One week later belinda got word that marcos was dead. She was 57 and one of at least 23 people who lost their lives to the virus at the prison. He is. Going to be accountable for your dad. Pressure to ease the overcrowding at sea i am was mounting in late may state prison officials decided to transfer 121 medically vulnerable men to stand clinton. Up to that point there had been no reported cases among the prison population there it was later revealed that some of the men from cia were not tested for as long as 4 weeks before the transfer really were very good at keeping. Out of san Quentin Andrew pullman worked at san quentin at the time and spoke exclusively to fault lines everything we were doing to make sure that it didnt enter the facility was working just monitoring. Everything in making sure people were jelling up making sure people ring. Then the all faded bus ride. So we was informed that 6 or 8 busses from c. M. I. Chino are on the way to san quentin right now as we speak what did you think when he told you that i was you know mean shocked i dont know if it was me or one of my coworkers said can resist turn the bus around no there are already en route. To cries we spoke to a nurse inside san quentin who asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing their job. Or it. Goes on the quote unquote how did you feel when you heard about. The story. Of the world. Order to log. On. I was being i was like they were in a bus for like 7 hours together theyre all affected i was like yeah its over its here it was. When you do the work to do the course. Work. Prisons are designed to to hold people in close proximity for control purposes they are ill equipped to deal with a pandemic one building designed for 400 people with 800 people in it every part of the building just massively overcrowded. If you could just imagine walk into a. Dungeon door and then the whole thing just open up and youre like well theres a syringe and. Theres no. Ventilation windows are welded shut their doors over the front door so everyone is greeting the same air all of the time every day the cells are about 4 biden. And you live in that cell with another person. Men transferred from cia and were placed in such cells not isolated in a separate house. The 1st reported case confirmed case the mood of the prison really went. Down past dreary you can hear people yelling out the doors. How this is nonsense is why you bring them here why are you making a sick we said oh no here we go its going to be its going to be inevitable that we all get it. Tonight nearly one in 3 prisoners is now infected with that virus the virus spreading rapidly in a population that is already 42 percent medically vulnerable once covert came i knew it was a deaf sense for a lot of people and i was like man if i ever get out im just going to hear names coming out and im going to remember. And it happened. I mean i feel bad for him predicting that when i was there i was like. Hes going to die it could be he could barely breathe now things are reaching a critical point a virus spreading so fast the prison is running out of places to safely howz inmates and to spread like wildfire who do you blame for that. I mean administration its c. C. R. And does the thinking does the planning doesnt so theyre all to me responsible for all of our well being. C. D. C. Are or the California Department of corrections and rehabilitation is the agency that carried out the transfer on july 1st the state senate how the hearing to address the unfolding crisis. Diaz was the head of c. D. C. Our at the time but the question of who was responsible for the transfer is complicated in 2006 after decades of overcrowding that led to ellis and a federal Court Appointed overseen for to oversee health care in californias prisons that office signed off on the prison transfer perspective what responsibility do you do you take with our current level well outbreaks with them why i share all of the same accountabilities and i was the secretary. On all matters and im accountable and. Responsible both for the successes. And for the failures after the disastrous transfer of enemies to san quentin i was nothing more than the worst prison screw up in state history we see the same kind of lack of regard in our own c. D. C. Our system when it comes to how we treat these prisoners we have a responsibility to care for them as human beings. And were not doing that theres a thought but the department of corrections or myself. Elation are we we view them as human or they dont deserve the same considerations as all of us are all of us receive out here thats a concern that sets us apart from the truth. Meanwhile the outbreak and. It was the 1st largest outbreak in the country people show you sick left and right for a week straight then be these alarms is called man down everybodys been sick starving man down and down man down all day on a siren when blam and he will begin taking on a 90. 00. 0000000000 extension 000 security Worth Building those. Little boy do we believe. That. It. Was a. Pretty good. Trick to. Get were super. Hero. Really it unfolded into chaos there was virtually no way to keep up Railroad Train one group of people in the am really would get revised instructions and what we train people that afternoon would be different. And it kept changing like that on a rapid basis what was being required of stuff from the outbreak happened a lot of over time and as a result of that people are just getting burned out i am high risk they would not accommodate my risk factors. Thats why youre retired thats why im retired. How and why do you think the situation got so out of control. I was didnt chills and headaches and temperatures at night and i was scared and i told him i had a tough luck infected man were sometimes isolated in cells used for solitary confinement to avoid ending up there some refused to be tested because theres no medical treatment that theyre receiving if they test positive unless they have to go out of the on a ventilator base people see no benefit in taking the test and once a person test positive theyll put that person in the hole in administrative segregation as a way of isolating them from the Larger Population that person is removed from all of their personal items usually the cell in the whole this dirty filthy a lot of people are scared calm and down to see if they can ride it out because theyre locking you up and when they lock you up they put you in a worse place but there were too many sick men to isolate so some had to remain in their cells confined with their healthy cell mates if you were positive and your selling wasnt there said you know what you guys just Stay Together because youre exposed. But that dont make no sense exposes neighbor exposed this guys exposed could you imagine a big warehouse with no air people cough and its just there theres no where to go. Did any of your friends die yes i had 2 friends that died. Eric was myself for about 2 years and he was he was worried about it he always had 2 masses on he was like kept himself away from people but i think he caught in the shower if he has to go shower and thats only time he took off his mess. Eric was one of the 1st person that helped me change because when i arrived in san quentin our i didnt understand the nature of san quentin so out of promise like you know what im going to beat this guy up and then before the door could open eric called me hes like you know what you dont have to live that you can live with me and just avoid all that problem. So he took me into his his cell he took me in his house and we were selling for like 2 years. He said when he got out came in his brother was going to travel the world by train or boat i said wow its a story in your compass and you know we do this run a a nice air to death in a situation that was willis and tommy inside of. Ours live and under my circumstances and ministering to the above my circumstances my brother really became sort of this role model prisoner she really had a purpose in life and he was really helping others and im proud of my brother. Can you tell me about your last conversation with erin he was really struggling for every breath of air. I bring ive been with my brother through this journey there was never a moment we cave on his freedom and so i wasnt going to give up on his life i wanted him to fight till the end for his life and for his freedom. So i never gave him permission to let go or never encourage him to give up. Its not in us. To the end. But he was fighting for those guys too. Eric warner died on july 25th he was 57. Incarcerated men werent the only ones getting sick prison staff were also affected. One of them was a corrections officer named gilbert. Thats my husband. He worked at san quentin for 34 years a great man he is the man. You dream about marrying you know its real because all my friends a lawyer make comments about it do like how are you so close with your dad you live best friend like i tell him everything so we start making mass for him i was i was scared you know i didnt want him to get sick he was scared he was scared i know he was because he would tell me in dont know if i can deal with this any any longer you know. But i have to do it because all the officers are falling down there theyre not coming back to work they were getting sick they were getting sick was around it so much you know that he also drove the end mates to the hospital that had cove it so i mean he was close up front you know he started coughing and he thought it was just exhaustion of him going to work so working a lot. Because there was no one to fill in those spots. I think it was the 2nd day after he tested positive where he was not doing well he said thats it i cant i cant breathe. Sergeant along go went to the emergency room on july 3rd now that his ill the you know then mates have been telling officers what theyre feeling and saying prayers to him and our family which says a law its its its a law you know speaks volumes we were on a video they were sedating him and getting him prepared to be on the ventilator we were just telling them everything we could possibly in within that minute or 2 couple minutes that we had to. You know we love him dont worry youre going to survive this youre going to come come through you will fight to the end you know. 3 days after this interview on august 9th Sergeant Gilbert along go die ringback. We try to speak with representatives from the c. D. C. Are you know or you know not here im going on you wouldnt. But they declined interview requests hi my name is dean at secretary im actually standing right outside your offices in sacramento right now hoping for an interview in an email statement a c. D. C. Or representative said they implemented unprecedented measures to address the coven 1000 outbreak us one until. After transfers from c i am tested positive they set up a 220. 00 bad alternative care site provided all staff and the incarcerated population with it and 95. 00 respirators and sent hundreds of additional staff to us and clinton. But for those with loved ones inside it was too little and too late to. Look. Well i would find it would be her. Can you tell us what. The want to hold me through human beings they are born since he. Was a little over 33. I know youre. Not in. The coven 1000 pandemic has cast a spotlight on overcrowding in u. S. Jails and prisons for 2300000 people are locked up california has struggled with this for decades. In 2011 the u. S. Supreme court ruled that overcrowding in the states prisons violated the constitutions ban on cruel and unusual punishment this extensive ongoing constitutional violation requires a remedy and a remedy will not be achieved without a reduction of overcrowding loads are in there but there surely will be when the pandemic hit lawyers are good for people to be released. For cold Good Public Health requires population reduction for the culture it requires staff testing Public Health requires complete control over transfers mean you would have avoided some of these disasters i think the crowding is the biggest thing that led from the strike and it can still happen today because were so crowded the Greater Public private schools more than 50 percent of people must be reviewed to make social distancing possible within these facilities because the Government Agency in canada since april the state has released some people early to reduce the population but many california prisons have remained at well over 100 percent capacity. Advocates and Public Health experts say c. D. C. R. And california. Gov must do more. Than welcome home celebrations then we are done most of the people that have been released so far have been accelerated release he was going to get out anyway i just let him out 30 days earlier 60 days or 90 days theyre not days by the way on covert risk at all theyre not based on their risk aversive of us are there not based on whether or not these people are the safest to get out. Free my husband my husband has a home to go to he has a community he has a family hes loved i believe that at this point in time hes learned his lesson hes liar how to become that productive citizen in society we need everybody. We need everyone to contact the cases of coronavirus have been reported at every California State Prison without least 15 of them having outbreaks of more than 100 people. Out there out of how many we cant hide from cover 1000 for 10 our prisons are not part of our communities these are dangerous sources of outbreaks the largest outbreaks in the United States right now are in prisons and jails. Rather sulkily. And over time this is always been a Public Health issue for people who are incarcerated its now a Public Health issue for the entire state in the entire country really but beyond that its a human rights travesty that we are. Refusing to release mostly elderly and infirm to people because of our fears and biases. Every time i look at that cove it and i see even another loved one has passed away he dies all over again i hear the call again. Those guys in there they have boundaries. The government just wont take responsibility i know theyre scared you know what it is they release a mass amount of people but. Right now in the condition that we haue tomorrow is not promised. Since a coronavirus arrived in san quenti