Would California prison guards quit over vaccine mandates? Newsom administration says yes

California state officials are worried prison guards’ resistance to vaccines runs so deep that a strict vaccination mandate could lead many to quit their jobs, with potentially “crippling” effects to the prison system, according to a Monday court filing.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation are appealing a vaccination order for all prison employees issued last month by U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar in Oakland. Newsom’s administration on Monday asked Tigar to pause his order while the appeal makes its way through court.

Just 51% of the state’s roughly 28,000 correctional officers are vaccinated, according to Monday’s filing. Overall, the vaccination rate among the prison system’s employees is 63%, according to a department website.

Under current rules, prison employees must get vaccinated or submit to regular COVID-19 testing. Tigar’s order would eliminate the testing alternative for everyone except those with religious or medical exemptions.

Connie Gipson, director of the correction’s department’s Division of Adult Institutions, said in the filing that she’s concerned a significant number of employees would quit or face firing rather than accept the vaccine.

In Washington, which recently imposed a vaccine mandate on correctional officers and other state employees, about 4.5% of officers quit or were fired, the Seattle Times has reported.

Citing the Times article, Gipson said in Monday’s filing that a loss of that many officers would have “severe” impacts in California’s prisons.

Job losses in the range of 8% to 10%, which Gipson estimated California could reach in the filing, could be “crippling,” she said, affecting the department’s ability to provide things like recreation and rehabilitation programs or even phone calls and showers at some prisons. And the institutions would be less safe, she said in the filing.

According to the latest information posted online by the department, 241 inmates and 46 employees have died from COVID-19.

Prison union anticipates extra work for remaining members

Steven Fama, an attorney for San Francisco-based Prison Law Office who represents inmates in the Oakland court case, called Gipson’s estimates of the numbers of employees who might give up their jobs “speculation.”

“If it turns out there’s a few (guards) who don’t want to follow the public health directive, in our view they shouldn’t be working in the state prisons,” Fama said.

Tigar’s order called for inmates who work outside the prisons and those who spend time with visitors to also get vaccinated. The vaccination rate is about 77% among inmates, according to corrections department data.

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the union representing the officers, filed a request Tuesday to expand its role in the lawsuit. The union, which donated $1.75 million to help Newsom defeat the campaign to recall him, said in a Tuesday filing that job losses related to the vaccine order would have cascading effects for its members, who would have to fill in for departed colleagues and could face job transfers.

Hundreds of unvaccinated officers near retirement

In Monday’s filing, the corrections department argued its progress reducing hospitalizations and active cases since December 2020, the virus’s peak, shows voluntary vaccination efforts are working. The system has recently hovered around 200 active cases, down from about 10,600 in December.

But Fama said the institutions face heightened risk in the months ahead.

“We don’t know what’s coming, in terms of another surge,” he said. “We all remember what happened in the cold weather months last year, which was the massive surge. And we can’t forget, if covid had to design its ideal home, it would build a prison.”

Gipson said in the filing that the pandemic has already impacted hiring and retention, spurring a higher-than-normal rate of retirement. About 729 unvaccinated correctional officers are over 50 and have worked at the department for more than 20 years, making them eligible for retirement, she said in the filing.

Meanwhile, enrollment is down at the department’s training academy. In the last fiscal year, only 892 cadets graduated, compared to 1,608 in the year that ended in June 2019, Gipson said in the filing. Just 24% of cadets who graduated Oct. 22 were vaccinated, she said.