Inmates file coronavirus lawsuit seeking more releases from Butner federal prison in NC
The Federal Correctional Complex at Butner on Tuesday became the latest among several federal prisons facing class action lawsuits that claim the facilities need to release more inmates to protect them from the coronavirus and limit its spread behind bars.
Attorneys for 11 inmates filed the suit in the U.S. Eastern District Court of North Carolina and have asked a judge to name an expert to identify all vulnerable inmates who then can be released within 24 hours. The inmates are being represented by the Charlotte law firm Winston & Strawn, the ACLU and the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.
Butner has had one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks among federal prisons. Nearly 375 inmates and 44 staff have tested positive for the virus, the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ reported Tuesday. It said 220 inmates and 35 staff have recovered.
The bureau also reported Monday in a news release that a ninth inmate had died due to COVID-19 complications. Eric Spiwak, 73, who was serving a sentence of 15 years and eight months for possessing child pornography, died Monday, three days after being diagnosed with the virus. He had pre-existing conditions that were risk factors for the disease, the bureau said.
On Tuesday, the bureau reported a 10th inmate had died but did not identify him. The death was listed among the bureau’s report of total numbers of inmates and staff who had tested positive for the virus at the prison complex. In an email, the bureau’s press office confirmed the death and said it was working to provide more details.
The email also said the bureau had no comment on the lawsuit.
The inmates who filed the lawsuit claim that bureau Director Michael Carvajal, Medical Director Jeffery Allen and Butner Warden Thomas Scarantino have shown “deliberate indifference to the severe and obvious risk of rampant infection and death that COVID-19 poses to people incarcerated at FCC Butner.”
As a result, the prison officials not only endangered inmates at Butner, “they put Butner’s staff, local health care workers, family members, and the broader community at serious risk,” the lawsuit says.
“Butner is a tinderbox for COVID-19, and the stories emerging from its overcrowded facilities are harrowing. The federal government needs to get vulnerable people out of harm’s way, and they need to do it immediately before more lives are lost,” Emily Harwell, senior staff attorney with the ACLU of North Carolina, said in an emailed news release.
The inmates call for the prison to create a “COVID-19 mitigation plan” that would be submitted to the judge and overseen by a public health expert. The plan would require the prison to immediately screen all inmates for COVID-19 symptoms and follow up with immediate testing of inmates who show symptoms or who were in close proximity of someone showing symptoms or testing positive for the virus.
Staff would also have to be screened daily, and movements of staff and inmates between buildings would need to be minimized. The prison would have to ensure that inmates can keep at least six feet apart at all times, in accordance with Centers for Disease Control guidelines.
Many of the inmates suing are medically vulnerable, with maladies ranging from severe kidney disease to lymphoma. The prison complex includes a large medical center, and has an older and more infirm inmate population than many prisons.
The complex is also overcrowded, the inmates say, making it harder to avoid the virus and get the treatment needed for other medical conditions. A bureau report from 2017 listed capacity for just under 4,000 inmates; on Monday it reported a total population of 4,438.
Other inmates have won early release through individual lawsuits filed in district courts. Last week, a federal judge in South Carolina ordered that Joseph Leslie Griggs, 54, who was serving a 25-month sentence for being a felon in possession of a weapon, should be placed in home confinement.
The judge found the conditions at Butner were unsafe for vulnerable inmates, and Griggs was also having difficulty getting the medical care he needed for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
“(Griggs’) criminal conduct was egregious and showed a blatant disrespect of the law; however, this Court cannot sit idly by and watch while COVID-19 destroys elderly and seriously infirm inmates in BOP custody,” U.S. District Court Judge Donald C. Coggins Jr. said in his decision.
The News & Observer has talked to inmates and their families as the outbreak progressed. They have said that social distancing is impossible, soap had run out as inmates started getting sick, and not everyone is wearing masks.
One inmate, Richard Cephas, fled the prison’s work camp shortly before it had a major outbreak, and he told the N&O while on the run that he feared staying at the prison was a “death sentence.” He has since turned himself in and now faces an escape charge.
A former inmate who provided a statement for the lawsuit expressed the same worry.
“I am now at home with my wife in Maryland,” said Lewis Donnell Huntley, 44, a paraplegic who was released from the camp on May 7. “I am relieved to be at home, but I am still very concerned for the health and lives of those who remain at Butner. I fear that remaining in prison with so many people sick will be a death sentence for them.”
Bureau officials have said they have stepped up early release of inmates as the virus hit. They reported on Monday that 3,183 inmates have been placed in home confinement since March 26. The bureau has not disclosed how many of those inmates were at Butner.
North Carolina’s prison system is also facing a similar lawsuit in state Superior Court. A state judge denied a request to immediately identify and release inmates, but inmates and their advocates are continuing to press their case in court hearings.
News reports show similar class action lawsuits have been filed against federal prisons in California, Connecticut, Louisiana and Ohio.
This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 5:08 PM with the headline "Inmates file coronavirus lawsuit seeking more releases from Butner federal prison in NC."