Fourteen demonstrators chained themselves to the front gate of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mansion in Fair Oaks Monday morning to protest the mounting death toll and rising infection numbers in state prisons and immigration detention centers. All 14 were arrested by the California Highway Patrol for trespassing.

The California Liberation Collective, which organized the action, called on the governor to grant mass clemency, stop transfers to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers and halt the expansion of immigration detention in the state. Crowded and unsanitary conditions have made prisons and ICE facilities hotspots for the virus, with both inmates and staff becoming infected. At San Quentin State Prison, 63 percent of inmates have tested positive for the coronavirus.

In addition to those arrested, roughly 100 people joined the 6 a.m. action outside the governor’s suburban home. Protestors built an altar to those who had  died while incarcerated and painted a mural on the street reading “Newsom, Free Them All!" The action came as immigrants detained at Mesa Verde and Yuba detention centers staged a work stoppage and hunger strike, respectively, to push for life-saving measures.

When asked about the protest at a Monday afternoon press briefing, Gov. Newsom pointed to the expedited release of nearly 12,000 prisoners in response to the coronavirus. “We have a criteria that’s bracketed in terms of those that would be eligible for early release,” he said. “And we have a responsibility to those individuals as well as to the community, victims’ families and the like to do so in a thoughtful way.

“The worst thing we could do is mass release where people are just released out onto the streets and sidewalks, and end up in benches and in parks, on the side of the road. That’s not compassion. That would be compounding the problem, making the problem, in fact, worse.”