SACRAMENTO — California prisoners will now have less access to their attorneys, after a slough of new policy changes intended to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the California prison system.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has suspended “non-imminent” attorney-client visits within the state prison system, and is requiring all visits be approved by department’s office of legal affairs, according to court records. “Urgent” legal visits will still be permitted, as will video conferencing and unmonitored phone calls, a CDCR memo said.

A motion in federal court that quoted the new policy said the change comes “in light of the COVID-19 crisis and the suspension of most state and federal court activities,” and that it will continue “until further notice.” The move not only affects inmates with pending lawsuits, but also those with pending criminal charges.

Inmates with upcoming parole dates can schedule visits “when it is safe to do so,” the policy says. Otherwise, CDCR’s legal affairs office will consider visit requests only with “emergent issues involving important legal rights”

So far, 103 people in California’s prison system — 33 inmates and 70 employees — have tested positive for COVID-19, according to state records. Of the inmate cases, 30 emerged in two prisons: in Los Angeles County, and at the Correctional Institution for Men in Chino.

CDCR’s new memo also states that a number of initiatives have been taken to reduce chances for inmates to infect one another, including limiting meals to singular housing units at a time, and limiting the number of inmates who can engage in indoor recreation. The restrictions are set to last two weeks.

In a statement on the so-called “modified program,” CDCR Secretary Ralph Diaz noted that “we are truly in this together.”

“We will continue to seek ways for the incarcerated population to stay in touch with their support systems, retrieve items from canteen services, and have out-of-cell time that we know is important for overall physical and mental health,” Diaz wrote. “We ask for patience and an understanding that we are doing everything we can to create better physical distancing within our institutions, staff and inmates—we are all Californians in this effort.”

The new visitation policy appears to have already affected some cases. In Sacramento, the attorney for a man with pending federal racketeering charges wrote in a motion this week that he was rebuffed when he attempted to schedule a legal visit with his client, Brant Daniel, at New Folsom prison in Sacramento. Daniel is accused of murdering Zachary Scott, 36, in October 2016, in Salinas Valley State Prison, a murder prosecutors say was done on the orders of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang’s high command.

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Alameda County has reported a huge COVID-19 death total in recent weeks. Here’s why. The attorney, John Balazs, has requested an “emergency” court order to schedule at least three unmonitored video conference calls between him and Daniel. He added that Daniel has been routinely prevented from even making legal calls and suggested his client’s Sixth Amendment rights were being violated.

“In its October 30, 2019 tentative ruling, the Court acknowledged that the Sixth Amendment right to access to counsel requires that defendants must be allowed to make unmonitored phone calls to counsel during normal business hours. Yet, Daniel still does not have the ability to make any legal calls to his attorneys,” Balazs wrote. “Yesterday, the (CDCR) litigation coordinator informed counsel that there has been no change in their policy against legal calls and denied counsel’s request for legal calls even though in-person legal visits have been suspended.”