Inmates left without ice water, proper ventilation during two power outages at Bay Area state prison

A second power outage occurred at California State Prison, Solano (SOL) on the evening of July 16, after some power was restored at the facility that afternoon following a previous outage that lasted nearly 60 hours.

A second power outage at California State Prison, Solano on Tuesday evening left inmates without access to running water or ice.

An source affiliated with SOL said the second power outage occurred at approximately 9:30 p.m. Tuesday evening.

“But when the lights came back on the first time not all buildings had power,” said the source. “There was still half of the prison that did not ever gain power, which was A buildings and C yard buildings.”

According to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials, the troubles began when a major outage occurred in Vacaville on July 14, starting around 3 a.m.

Paul Moreno, Public Information Officer for PG&E, said utility officials responded to the prison to investigate the initial outage and discovered that the prison’s equipment had failed, causing a fault that affected PG&E power lines. As a result, power to PG&E’s system was shut off to isolate the trouble.

“When this happened at 3:10 a.m. Sunday, our trouble man responded and after determining our system was OK, reset the switch and restored about 2,800 customers in Vacaville a little more than an hour after the outage began,” said Moreno.

The prison, however, remained without power until SOL officials could repair things on their end.

It is unknown what caused equipment at SOL to fail, promoting both outages, but the source said the prison regained power in all areas at approximately 12 a.m. Wednesday. Another outage, however, was scheduled to take place at 2 p.m. Wednesday, according to the source, to check for hazards.

While the power was out at the facility, CDCR officials said the prison was operating on emergency generator power in most of the institution and security was never compromised due to the outage.

Todd Javernick, CDRC Public Information Officer, said the health and safety of all individuals living and working within SOL was the top priority while the power was out and medical staff were making regular rounds in all buildings during the outage to monitor the well-being of the incarcerated population.

“Running water and ice are available to help manage heat-related concerns and cooling fans are operating in most areas,” said Javernick on Monday.

Several concerned citizens, however, contacted The Reporter claiming that inmates did not have access to running water or ice and that fans were mainly in officer-centric areas. They also voiced that inadequate meals were being served while inmates were confined to their cells during the outage.

The source confirmed Wednesday that, while SOL officials communicated well during the outage, official reports were much different than the accounts told by those incarcerated at the facility.

“For example all officers were told to get ice water jugs for all buildings yet most officers did not grab water jugs, so our loved ones did not have ice water to cool down for two whole days,” said the source. “Also the officers were told to let those in level 3 – who are inside a cell without any type of air ventilation – outside to the yard but not all officers did allow them to go outside.”

The source also noted that some inmates went without showers for two days.

“The lack of management verifying what was actually going on was a big opportunity,” said the source. “There was no check and balances.”