SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Families say they're worried about the conditions their loved ones are facing inside Donovan State Prison. As ABC 10News reported earlier this week, the prison was being powered by large-scale generators.
Prison officials say the power initially went out at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Since then, the prison brought generators, extra staff, and portable toilets.
A California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson told ABC 10News that as of 7 p.m. Friday, all housing units and clinics at the prison had full power via the generators. The spokesperson also said toilets in the housing unit were working again.
Power was also restored for electronic tablets given to incarcerated people. The prisoners use those to communicate with friends and family.
"Electrical crews worked throughout the night to continue to bring full power to additional areas," CDCR's statement sent to 10News on Saturday says.
Loved ones of those incarcerated noticed trouble in the kitchens, as the prison served cold lunches during the outages.
"A sack lunch, which is just peanut butter and jelly," said Mary Estrada, whose husband is at the prison. "These are grown men, how the hell are you just gonna give them that?"
Estrada's husband has been in Donovan State Prison since 2015, and told her about trouble in the bathrooms.
"The past few days Donovan put a porta-potty for every building," said Estrada. "For every building that houses the inmates, that's about 150 to 200 inmates for one porta-potty."
Outside the restroom, Janice Oliver says it's not much better.
"My husband should not beg for a bar of soap when it's supposed to be given to him, a shower," said Oliver. "Simple things like that we take for granted."
In a statement to ABC 10News, the Dept. of Corrections says the outage does not jeopardize security. But civil rights attorney Brody McBride says that's a tough task.
"Most of these doors are controlled remotely from the tower in each specific unit or other areas in the prison," said McBride. "While they can be accessed and opened manually, that's a tremendous amount of work."
The prison says SDG&E found the transformers supplying power were damaged. Before SDG&E can turn power back on, they say the prison needs to fix its own electrical equipment first.
In the meantime, the prison is suspending most visits. Family members say the prison told them not to expect any visits for at least two weeks.
For inmates, that means spending Thanksgiving alone.
In the meantime, the prison is suspending most visits until the power comes back on.
"I've never missed a holiday with my husband. I've always spent every holiday, minus when COVID hit," said Estrada. "So with me not being able to spend even a few hours for Thanksgiving with him, it's really breaking my heart."
The California Department of Corrections says crews worked around the clock to restore power.
