Civil rights groups sue to force early release of inmates vulnerable to COVID-19
As COVID-19 cases rise in North Carolina’s prisons, a coalition of civil rights groups has filed a lawsuit asking the state Supreme Court to immediately release vulnerable inmates.
The suit, filed by the ACLU of North Carolina, Disability Rights North Carolina and others, argues that Gov. Roy Cooper and the state Department of Public Safety have a legal duty to take action before a large-scale outbreak results in deaths inside the prisons and in surrounding communities.
Among those filing suit are four people in state custody, including Alberta Elaine White, 66, who is at the Center for Community Transitions in Charlotte. A fifth person is the wife of an inmate at Wilkes Correctional Center. All five inmates have medical conditions that put them at high risk if exposed to the virus, the lawsuit said.
“Our state prisons are overcrowded, forcing thousands of people to live and work in dangerous conditions where it is impossible for people to protect themselves from this deadly disease,” said Kristi Graunke, Legal Director for the ACLU of North Carolina. “North Carolina courts did not sentence thousands of people to suffer and potentially die from a pandemic. Numerous people who are incarcerated right now could be sent home to live safely with their families without posing a danger to the public.”
COVID-19 outbreak at Neuse Correctional Institution
The suit comes as a coronavirus outbreak has sickened inmates at Neuse Correctional Institution, in Eastern North Carolina. Statewide, 20 inmates have now tested positive for COVID-19, state prison officials said Wednesday. Thirteen of those inmates were housed at Neuse.
“When there is an outbreak, these individuals will be at the mercy of a prison system that is ill-equipped to handle a novel, deadly virus that has overwhelmed healthcare systems across the country,” the lawsuit contends. “Given these dire circumstances, North Carolina public health experts have urged that ‘reducing the prison population is a critical measure that must be acted on immediately.’”
Asked about the lawsuit at a news conference, Cooper did not speak about releasing inmates. He said he and his administration are taking steps to protect inmates and prison staff.
“People who are in our correctional [institutions] are one of the congregate living groups that we are concerned about just like people in long-term care and skilled nursing homes,” he said in a transcript his office released. “People who are in a confined facility, we have deep concern about spread of the virus, we have concern about the people who are there, we have concern about staff and we want to do what we can to protect them.
“Isolating people who have COVID-19, restricting people that can come in, making sure there’s significant hygiene, making sure that corrections staff can wear protective equipment, making sure that we pay our correctional staff bonus pay — all of those things are important in protecting the population.”
DPS said in a statement that it has been “actively and diligently working to identify avenues for reducing our population while also continuing our mission to maintain public safety.”
But the department added: “Reentry for offenders is complex in the best of times. People often face challenges finding appropriate housing, job opportunities and medical care. These issues are even more difficult in this current state of emergency, particularly for vulnerable prison populations.”
The suit, also filed on behalf of the North Carolina NAACP, maintains that African-American inmates “will disproportionately bear the devastation” caused by COVID-19. African-Americans make up 22% of North Carolina’s population, but account for 51% of the prison population, the suit notes.
Nearly a third of prisoners have a disability
About 35,000 people are incarcerated in the state’s prisons. More than 8,000 of them are over the age of 50, according to the suit. And nearly a third of them have at least one disability, according to an estimate cited in the complaint.
“The physical limitations of prisons are especially life-threatening for people over the age of 65 and those who have underlying health conditions that put them at high risk for serious COVID-19 infection,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit comes two weeks after the ACLU of North Carolina, Disability Rights North Carolina and other civil rights groups sent letters to Cooper and DPS, urging them to expedite the release of certain sick and elderly inmates in order to protect those who remain incarcerated.
State prisons officials have been scrambling to secure supplies that slow the spread of the virus, the Charlotte Observer reported.
Inside state prison manufacturing plants, inmates are now making face masks, gowns, disinfectant and hand sanitizer. Prison officials say all inmates and staff members will receive a face mask once enough are manufactured.
Prisons and jails are especially vulnerable to infectious diseases, experts say, because inmates live so closely together.
Most transfers have stopped, officials say
Hoping to prevent the coronavirus from spreading more widely, North Carolina prison officials say they will not accept any more offenders from county jails for the next 14 days.
State officials say they have stopped the transfer of most inmates from prison to prison during the next two weeks.
In mid-March, state officials temporarily banned all visits to the prisons in hopes of preventing an outbreak.
On March 24, state prison officials also suspended the work release program — an effort to limit inmates’ potential exposure to the coronavirus.
Prison officials say they have begun taking the temperatures of every employee who enters a prison each day. Anyone with a temperature of 100 degrees is denied entry, officials say.
Staffers are also asked a series of screening questions before they enter the prisons. Officials say they deny entry to any employee who has symptoms of respiratory illness or who has been exposed in the past 14 days to anyone who is suspected of having or diagnosed with COVID-19.
On Tuesday, a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman told The News & Observer that the prison complex in Butner in Granville County would step up the early release of inmates after positive tests for COVID-19 surged over the weekend. The public health department for Vance and Granville counties on Wednesday reported 63 cases at Butner, where roughly 4,700 inmates are housed in three prison facilities and a medical center.
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 5:24 PM with the headline "Civil rights groups sue to force early release of inmates vulnerable to COVID-19."
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