Thousands of inmates at an overpopulated California state prison without power

(FOX40.COM) — Thousands of inmates and staff workers at California State Prison Solano are without electricity after an outage early Sunday.

“California State Prison, Solano (SOL) is actively working to repair a power outage that occurred following a major outage in the city of Vacaville on July 14, 2024,” the California Department of Corrections said in a statement to FOX40.com on Monday.

The power outage started around 3 a.m. on Sunday and is ongoing more than 36 hours later, according to the Pacific Gas & Electric Company outage map.

The prison is one of the most overpopulated facilities in the state. A population report from CDCR shows as of June 2024, the prison holds 3,986 inmates, 153% of its capacity.

“The health and safety of all individuals living and working within our institution and in our community are our top priorities,” CDRC said. “This outage does not compromise security at SOL, and we are working to promptly address the needs of our population.”

CDCR reported that ice water is available and cooling fans are “operating in most areas.” Several people have called FOX40 and claimed that there is no running water and that fans are mainly in officer-centric areas.

“SOL is operating on emergency generator power in most of the institution and the prison is ensuring that appropriate access to medical and mental health care is maintained,” CDRC said.

As of 3:30 p.m. on Monday, there is no estimated time of restoration.

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