Inmates at a Los Angeles County jail deliberately tried to infect themselves with COVID-19 in the hopes of getting an early release, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Monday.
Surveillance video released by the Sheriff's Office appears to show men at Pitchess Detention Center-North County Correctional Facility passing around a mask allegedly contaminated with the virus. Twenty-one men tested positive for the virus within a week of the incident, but the diagnosis is unlikely to result in any of their releases.
"It is very disturbing to think that people would do this to themselves deliberately in an attempt to force our hand to release more people from custody," the sheriff said at a press conference.