The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a lawsuit against the state corrections department Wednesday for “failing to perform (its) legal and moral duty” to keep inmates at its Moose Lake facility safe from COVID-19.
The petition, filed in Carlton County District Court on behalf of three inmates, comes as the virus has already begun circulating in the facility. The Minnesota Public Defender’s Office joined the ACLU in the lawsuit.
The Department of Corrections issued a statement about the court filing Wednesday night, saying the department “shares the sentiment that ‘COVID-19 has created exceptional circumstances’ as is noted in the court filing.”
“The agency continues efforts to implement early work and conditional medical release processes that fall within the parameters of current Minnesota law,” Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell said, per the statement. “Our work continues to make adjustments to conform longstanding correctional practices with their emphasis on public safety to meet the compelling public health and fast moving challenges that result from COVID-19.”
The department added that the “DOC’s efforts to date have been developed in close collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Health in accordance with CDC guidance for correctional settings.”
Twelve inmates at the roughly 1,000-inmate facility have contracted COVID-19 as of April 15, with 31 other presumed positive cases, which includes inmates experiencing symptoms of the virus who have had contact with someone who has it. At least 11 correctional staff also have been infected, according to the ACLU.
Despite the spread, the state has been negligent in attempts to contain the virus and protect the prison’s population from exposure, according to the ACLU.
The Moose Lake facility is still holding up to eight men in one cell, for example, and has imposed no restrictions on the use of showers, communal phones, vending machines or other facilities, according to the lawsuit, adding that the prison just recently closed down its cafeteria.
The lawsuit goes on to say that the virus has now made its way into every unit of the prison, leaving no viable means for social distancing. It also says staff are no longer testing inmates for the virus.
“The prison and DOC have failed to take even rudimentary measures to prevent and stop the spread of COVID-19 at Moose Lake, endangering inmates, staff and the surrounding communities. Detention should not mean a death sentence,” ACLU-MN staff attorney Dan Shulman said in a statement Wednesday.
The lawsuit asks the court to order the department to release all inmates who have release dates in the near future or are considered high risk due to medical concerns and who have safe places to go.
It also asks the court to “require (the DOC) and the prison to perform their legal duty to keep all incarcerated individuals safe,” as well as appoint someone to oversee that responsibility.
The three plaintiffs named in the lawsuit are Roger Foster, Kristopher Mehle and Adam Dennis Sanborn. Foster and Mehle both have release dates in the near future, as well as potential employment lined up, according to ACLU staff. Foster has been reportedly showing signs of COVID-19 since early April, but so far prison staff haven’t tested him for it.
Sanborn is a smoker with asthma who has continued to be held among people showing symptoms of the virus, according to the ACLU, adding that all three individuals have safe places to stay should they be released.
The lawsuit represents them, as well as “other (inmates) like them” who are enduring violations of their “Minnesota constitutional rights to security and protection, freedom from cruel or unusual punishment, and due process” due to conditions in the Moose Lake facility, according to the ACLU.
While Moose Lake has the worst outbreak in the state’s prison system to date, the Willow Lake facility now has three positive cases and five other presumed cases.
The state’s response to the virus among its incarcerated population has been a “blind spot” amid the “extraordinary steps” it’s taken to slow the spread in other arenas, according to the lawsuit.