By Crescenzo Vellucci
Vanguard Sacramento Bureau Chief
SACRAMENTO – A Sacramento County Jail inmate who went public about 10 days ago in an exclusive jailhouse interview with THE VANGUARD about COVID-19-like symptoms suffered by those incarcerated inside county facilities was denied reduced bail Thursday, even though his accuser recanted, and he continues to have health issues.
“It’s real ugly here. I’ve seen folks collapse, falling down with fever in the chow lines. They’re just carried off, some return and some don’t,” Frederick Garner, an inmate awaiting trial and now housed at RCCC (Rio Cosumnes Correction Center), told THE VANGUARD April 20 from RCCC.
Despite that, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Ken Brody Thursday refused to lower Garner’s $620,000 bail even though Garner’s private defense counsel Michelle Spaulding made repeated attempts to convince the judge otherwise.
“I have been informed by Mr. Garner about his significant flu experience during a time when at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 was in the jail. Mr. Garner experienced all the symptoms, including hypertension, cough. People don’t die but they get very sick,” explained Spaulding, adding “He would like to get a COVID-19 anti-bodies test to see why he has shortness of breath.”
She also told the court that since Garner “told a (VANGUARD) reporter the story” about jail conditions he has been retaliated against. Garner apparently, after the news interview, has been placed in a more restricted area of jail with fewer privileges.
“The environment isn’t right for someone in his situation,” said Spaulding, noting again that Garner needs more medical treatment than what the jail can provide.
“When he was very sick six weeks ago he and others were only given Tylenol. Since then he has had an EKG (for his high blood pressure/hypertension), and an oxygen saturation test. That’s not real 
medical treatment. They can’t help him with his shortness of breath,” said Spaulding
However, deputy district attorney Teal Erickson was adamant that Garner should remain where he’s at, with no bail.
“He is incredibly dangerous to society,” said Erickson, citing Garner’s manslaughter conviction 22 years ago. Erickson said he “strangled his victim (in the current case) so much she had injuries. He also had seven pounds of marijuana packaged to sell. He wasn’t even out of custody six months. He is a danger to the community,” the DDA insisted.
Spaulding countered that Garner “paid his dues” for a crime more than a decade ago. She also reminded the court that the “victim at the preliminary (hearing) testified she was mad at him, relapsed by taking meth and alcohol” and Garner was “only defending himself. He is not a violent man.”
However, Judge Brody noted that “I can’t help him (Garner) with this (the prelimin), and then ruled that, although he could help with bail, he believed Garner, despite his protestations otherwise, is “getting adequate healthcare” in the county jails.
He set June 22 for a trial.
Attorney Spaulding still maintains that the jail is retaliating against Garner for going public about conditions in the jail for sick inmates.
The fear that county jails and state prisons could become super-hot spots as they have in other parts of the U.S. has caused more than 1,000 inmates to be released early or on zero bail in Sacramento jails.
Despite Sacramento’s move last month to reduce the jail population to allow social distancing in the jails, Garner described grim conditions inside Sacramento’s two jail facilities for those why may have or have had COVID-19.
Prisoners said they’ve seen inmates who “collapse” in chow lines because of the illness – some never return. Garner said when people come back, they’re “still coughing all over us.”
In his exclusive interview with THE VANGUARD in mid-April, Garner related his bout with an illness.
“I came down with something. Fever, cough, it hurt to take a breath, joints hurt so bad I couldn’t walk…and they just gave me a couple of Tylenol and an allergy pill a day – I had to buy more through our commissary,” said Garner, 50, who has underlying conditions of high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat and diabetes.
“Anyone who mentions the virus to the guards is ignored. Sometimes they quarantine people, but they push them right back here after a little while,” said Garner, who is facing marijuana sales and domestic violence charges – his wife recanted and said she was the aggressor.
Garner said inmates are keenly aware of COVID-19 but “try to stay positive. We’re very, very concerned. We talk about it, but try to keep it light.”
He did say that “eventually” inmates get to see a nurse, but even that is questionable.
“I have very high blood pressure, even with my meds. Like, if it’s 190 over something, and that’s real high, they have me raise my arm above the machine and it brings the BP back down to 140, and then they say I’m OK,” he said.
What precautions is the jail taking to prevent COVID-19 from taking hold?
“There’s fewer of us now, so we have more room. But social distancing? Ain’t no way to do it,” said Garner, describing the jail as a “petri dish.
“We try to stay apart but when we’re transported on the bus to court, we’re handcuffed together and stuffed into a holding cell,” said the father of five, and grandfather of six.
When defendants go into court it’s noticeable – hearings are done via the streaming service Zoom now – that no prisoners have masks, although deputies and defense counsel wear masks.
“They’ve never offered us masks,” said Garner.
Even attempts to sterilize the jail cause health problems, he related.
“Every night about midnight they come in, wearing masks, and spray disinfectant, fumigate our stuff…but then we can’t breathe, we don’t have masks. We’re all complaining about raw, sore throats,” said Garner.
Garner said he has some sympathy for guards, too.
“I see them. They’re young and in good shape. But then I see them later and they have circles under their eyes and don’t look well,” he said. Some guards wear masks, and some don’t, Garner said, who wonders if guards don’t want to know if COVID-19 is in the jail because then they’d be quarantined away from their families.
Spaulding called the jail conditions a “horror for the sick inmates, like Mr. Garner, who are trapped in there, not able to get out and get proper treatment. It’s unimaginable.
“If this is true, then it was happening at a time we were being told the jail was a safe and sanitary place to visit our clients. Perhaps they thought the precautions they were taking were sufficient, but what if they were wrong?” asked Spaulding.
“Not to let people choose whether to potentially be exposed to the virus takes away a fundamental right. How many people were exposed as a result of this? Inmates get released; guards go home. How many people did they then come into contact with,” Spaulding added.
Another prisoner, now released, backed up Garner’s story, saying he got sick in February for nearly three weeks. And he wasn’t the only one, he said.
“I had a fever, high heart rate, the worst headache of my life, couldn’t smell or taste. They wouldn’t test me for the virus, but something bad was going around,” he said, adding that older incarcerated were “falling down,” and that it seemed guards were getting sick.
“We had restrictions, they brought meals to us, there was hand sanitizer in the dayroom. But the mood was really depressing. Of course, we knew about the virus,” he said, and claims that tension has led to “a lot more fights.”
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