In Sacramento, California, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked an order that all California state prison workers must be vaccinated against COVID-19. This vaccine mandate was scheduled to take place on Jan. 19, 2022, but the appeal enforced this block until sometime in March.

The state's prison system and Gov. Gavin Newsom were both opposed to the mandate, although his administration previously required immunizations or testing for all public employees, including correctional officers. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association believed that this mandate could have created an employee shortage if workers refused to comply. 

According to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) statistics, about half of the CA prison population has been diagnosed with the virus, and at least 242 people have died. 

Due to the blockage of these vaccine mandates in prison, U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar required vaccines for prisoners who want in-person visits or for those who work outside of prison. “Once the virus enters a facility, it is very difficult to contain, and the dominant route by which it enters a prison is through infected staff,” Tigar stated. 

Don Specter, the director of the nonprofit Prison Law Office stated that this stoppage “puts both the prison staff and the incarcerated population at greater risk of infection.”

By Jacob Kim