Maggots and mice have fallen onto inmates' dining tables at a California state prison where holes in the roof also allow rain and bird droppings to seep through and streak the walls, according to an inmate lawsuit that charges the state isn't moving fast enough to repair deteriorating prisons.
California has committed $260 million over four years to repair leaking roofs and clear dangerous mould at more than two dozen deteriorating prisons where the cost of overdue maintenance is pegged at more than $1 billion.
Inmate Robert Escareno, who filed the California lawsuit, described in court how bird feces paint the dining room wall. He claims the mould and other contaminants aggravate his allergies. "Roofs are failing all over the place," said Don Specter, director of the non-profit Prison Law Office, which is representing Escareno. "They acknowledge the need of the roofs, they're not making arrangements so people don't get hurt in the meantime."
It's taken nearly two years just to design the Corcoran prison's new dining room roof, and prison officials could not say when construction will begin. Corrections Secretary Ralph Diaz told legislators in March that one leaky roof could create problems if inmates have to be moved from cell houses. The state is about 3,300 inmates below the cap but expects to reduce that margin considerably when it returns 1,400 inmates from a private out-of-state prison by June.The problem at Corcoran is that leaking rainwater has destroyed interior ceiling tiles so often that the prison no longer replaces them, prison Lt.
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