WATCH: California inmates try to infect one another in order to be released from jail

Security cameras at the North County Correctional Facility show inmates passing around containers of water, taking turns drinking, and breathing into a single mask.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva said that these actions were part of larger scheme to contract the coronavirus in order to be released from jail. Thirty people where the two modules were recorded tested positive for the virus, and two of the inmates have since been released, said Asst. Sheriff Bruce Chase.

"It’s sad to think that someone deliberately tried to expose themselves to Covid-19," Villanueva said. "Somehow there was some mistaken belief among the inmate population that if they tested positive that there was a way to force our hand and somehow release more inmates out of our jail environment—and that’s not gonna happen."

Investigators interviewed individuals involved in the scheme, but none of them would admit they had anything to do with it. "I think their behavior itself is what convicts them," Villanueva said.

It is not clear how the disease entered the two modules where the security footage was taken, leaving open the possibility that the inmates knew someone was sick and decided to act upon it.

In the video, dated April 26, an inmate fills a container from the hot water dispenser inside a dorm and strolls over to other inmates who are standing in a line waiting to be seen by a nurse. Within 90 seconds, three inmates appear to take swigs.

Villanueva noted that the inmates also made an attempt to use the hot water to elevate their temperatures.

The next day, nine inmates became ill and were removed from the dorm. Eventually, 21 of them tested positive, Chase said.

The dorm had been under quarantine since April 22, when an inmate showing symptoms was removed and placed in isolation, Chase said. A similar thing happened with a second inmate the following day. Both of the inmates tested negative for the virus, but there were other infections in the building.

Chase mentioned that the first positive test in the North County jail came around April 15 from a separate dorm on the same floor.

The second video, which was taken April 15, according to Lt. John Satterfield, showed inmates sharing a Styrofoam cup and breathing into the same face mask. Nine inmates tested positive in that module, Chase said.

“They’re in dorm settings, so it’s easy once one person is positive, if everybody is still in close contact with each other, or not wearing masks” to get infected, Jackie Clark, director of Correctional Health Services said.

Clark said she reviewed footage from the dorms where hardly any inmates were wearing masks, and had told the nursing staff to advise prisoners to wear protective coverings around the clock, even when sleeping.

Clark mentioned that it was a goal to get the entire facility tested for the virus.

“Anyone who’s in any type of medical housing ... they’re our priorities,” she said. “Trying to go from highest risk down to lowest risk.”

As of Monday, nearly 360 inmates in LA County jail had tested positive for the coronavirus. The number of infections has tripled since April 30. Of those infected, 117 have fully recovered.

Villanueva has reduced the jail population in response to the virus outbreak. The jails that typically house 17,000 people, held only 11,723 inmates, according to the Sheriff's Department.

Critics have taken LA County to task, saying it has not done enough to mitigate the spread of the virus. A recent class-action lawsuit claims that inmates are not being tested, even when they show symptoms and lack sufficient space for social distancing. The lawsuit also suggests that inmates do not have enough soap, or a safe way to dry their hands.

Patrisse Cullors, an activist whose uncle is a lead plaintiff, has called on Villanueva to release more inmates and for the Board of Supervisors to provide Covid-19 testing to all prisoners and staff.

“In an attempt to demonize incarcerated people, he is taking a page right out of Trump’s playbook by gaslighting those who are already vulnerable and in absolute fear,” Cullors said. “Contrary to the Sheriff’s allegations, what I’ve been hearing from prisoners is that there isn’t enough soap, there is no hot water, that sheriff deputies are taunting folks inside by coughing in their presence, telling them they’re going to die of COVID.”

In releasing prisoners due to the virus, the authorities would be giving the inmates exactly what they wanted in trying to infect each other in the first place.