Lompoc Prison’s COVID-19 Crisis Threatens to Pop
Rep. Salud Carbajal Warns of Potential 'Disaster That’s Unfathomable'
The confused and chaotic response of the U.S. government to the COVID-19 pandemic continues to plague Santa Barbara County, with the locus of the regional outbreak ― the federal prison complex in Lompoc ― showing few signs of containment.
As of Monday, April 27, less than a month since the first case was reported at the prison, 104 inmates and 32 employees have been infected. The figures are essentially doubling every week. One inmate has died. The number of prison cases combined with the number of sick residents in surrounding North County communities, where the majority of guards and other staff live, account for 79 percent of Santa Barbara County’s confirmed COVID-19 infections.
For reasons unclear, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), which operates 122 correctional institutions across the country, is no longer updating its online “COVID-19 Resource Page” with data on the Lompoc outbreak, though it is for its other facilities. Information on new infections is instead being provided by Santa Barbara County health officials during their daily press briefings.
