An incident at California Medical Facility (CMF) yesterday has prompted an investigation into an attempted homicide after an inmate assaulted a psychiatrist during a scheduled meeting. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is actively reviewing the circumstances that led to the attack, which occurred at approximately 12:48 p.m., in which inmate Jose L. Ramirez is the accused assailant.
According to the CDCR statement, as the psychiatrist convened for what had been routine, a correctional officer present intervened quickly to suppress the violence. Investigators later identified an improvised weapon at the scene. Transported to an outside hospital soon after the ambush, the psychiatrist is reported in good condition and expected to be released.
Ramirez, now facing potential felony charges by the Solano County District Attorney’s Office, has been reassigned to restricted housing while the investigation unfolds. The 35-year-old inmate had been serving a life sentence, with the possibility of parole, for a series of severe offenses, including first-degree murder and arson with special circumstances, among other charges.
Staff members at the CMF, some being offered peer support and other supportive services during the aftermath of the attack, work within a facility that has operated since 1955. This medium security medical institution, positioned strategically between Sacramento and San Francisco in the city of Vacaville, attends to the medical and psychiatric needs of male prisoners in the CDCR system, providing a spectrum of health care services from outpatient clinics to around-the-clock nursing in its licensed medical correctional treatment centers.
The CMF, furthermore, houses the nation's first licensed prison hospice and serves numerous inmate-patients in an outpatient capacity, while also tending to those requiring more intensive psychiatric and medical care in specialized units.
