Ventilation conditions during COVID-19 outbreaks in six California state carceral institutions

Residents of carceral facilities are exposed to poor ventilation conditions which leads to the spread of communicable diseases such as COVID-19. Indoor ventilation conditions are rarely studied within carceral settings and there remains limited capacity to develop solutions to address the impact of poor ventilation on the health of people who are incarcerated. In this study, we empirically measured ventilation rates within housing units of six adult prisons in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and compare the measured ventilation rates to recommended standards issued by the World Health Organization (WHO). Findings from the empirical assessment include lower ventilation rates than the recommended ventilation standards with particularly low ventilation during winter months when heating systems were in use. Inadvertent airflows from spaces housing potentially infected individuals to shared common spaces was also observed. The methodology used for this work can be leveraged for routine ventilation monitoring, pandemic preparedness, and disaster response.