LOS ANGELES – Dozens of protesters converged in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday, some dressed in hazmat suits, to protest the county’s plans to build a women’s prison in Lancaster.
The demonstration was planned to coincide with the Board of Supervisors’ expected vote on the final Environmental Impact Report for Mira Loma Women’s Detention Center. But the vote was postponed due to an administrative issue, according to the Department of Public Works, which requested the delay.
The board is now expected to consider the EIR on Oct. 25.
Community activists have long been vocal in their opposition to the jail and all-new jail construction, raising concerns including racial and economic inequalities in sentencing.
Opponents have also highlighted the distance families would have to travel to visit inmates as counterproductive to reducing recidivism.
The hazardous materials suits donned by the protesters were intended to draw attention to concerns that jail construction could result in cases of Valley Fever or coccidioidomycosis, according to Antje Lauer, an associate professor of microbiology at Cal State Bakersfield.
“The Antelope Valley is a hot spot for the pathogen,” Lauer said.
Lauer told the board that there is medication but no cure or vaccine for the fungal infection.
Construction, or even wind, can stir up microscopic soil-based spores that when breathed into the lungs can cause fever, chest pain and coughing.
Most people who breathe in the tiny spores do not get sick, but pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems or diabetes bear a higher risk, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and county health officials. Those who are black or Filipino are also at greater risk of developing severe forms of the infection.
Even those with acute symptoms can often be treated with fluids and bed rest. But the infection can lead to death in the most severe cases, according to the county’s Department of Public Health.
In 2014, 28 cases in which the infection spread beyond the lungs and 426 total cases were reported to county health officials. A more recent count was not immediately available.
State prison officials are facing multiple lawsuits filed on behalf of dozens of inmates who have contracted the disease. In 2015, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had to transfer at least 2,100 inmates susceptible to the disease out of Central Valley prisons to other facilities.
Those who have successfully fought off the disease have lifetime immunity.
The Los Angeles County board has highlighted the dormitory-style construction of the planned 1,604-bed women’s jail at Mira Loma, a former federal detention center. The facility is intended to house low- and medium- security offenders.
Previous related story: County moving forward with women’s jail in Lancaster
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Tell The Truth says
sounds great. OH WAIT, with a new prison comes more long term inmate families. Just what we need.
Mike says
Cry me a river, ANYONE can get Valley Fever. The damn solar fields have kicked up WAY MORE DUST AND SPORES, than what would be done. Mira Loma is being re-molded not rebuilt. And besides from what I learned the County signed a bus contract to bus the outmates, sorry visitors, from L.A.to the A.V. and back.
And the professor from Cal State Bakersfield is a tard. Bakersfield area is a BIGGER HOTBED. I got Valley Fever working.a.brush fire in the Carrizzo National Monument outside of a Taft Wichita is about an hour south west of Bakersfield. And getting treatment by a doctor who doesn’t know about it will make it worse, I know.
Bring on the jail. The jobs are.needed and it’s better than the facility sitting and wasting away.
Steven says
The facility was originally meant to be a homeless shelter and mental health facility. We need a place for our homeless residents and veterans, not cages.
EDodeeDoo says
Ahh, poor inmates have long commutes for their visitors…. the protests should be that The Valley does not want their trash families coming to visit…. and as for the hazmat suits….. yes only the construction there would deem protests for valley fever…. all the other construction is safe?
eo2 says
Bring on the jobs. More jails and prisons along with longer sentences.