Delays in releasing inmates from Danbury prison alleged by lawyers

Lawyers representing Danbury federal prison inmates are claiming there have been delays in identifying medically fragile people for release during the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that a settlement with federal authorities over the issue is not being enforced.

The claims come less than a week after a judge ordered 17 of the Danbury prison inmates be released over COVID-19 concerns.

Less than a week after a judge ordered 17 Danbury federal prison inmates to be released to home confinement to over concerns related to COVID-19, attorneys for the inmates again filed a motion seeking the enforcement of a settlement agreement claiming continued delays

Conditions at the prison have deteriorated so much that inmates who test positive for COVID-19 are receiving no medical care, only sporadic temperature checks, and one 65-year-old woman was left to lie in her own vomit without a bed or a way to contact staff, according to papers filed in federal court by a team of attorneys representing inmates.

The woman wound up spending several days in the hospital after initially being denied medical care while she was exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19, said attorney Alexandra Harrington, with the Criminal Justice Advocacy Clinic at the University at Buffalo School of Law.

“It was several hours before she was given help,” Harrington said. “When she returned from the hospital she was placed in a locked room alone for days with no change of clothes and no medical help.”

Harrington and a team of attorneys from clinics at Yale Law School and the Quinnipiac University School of Law are representing inmates at the Danbury prison in a lawsuit filed to require the federal Bureau of Prisons to identify medically fragile people for release during the pandemic.

The Danbury prison is following all federal guidelines for managing COVID-19, according to Emery Nelson with the Office of Public Affairs within the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

“All inmates at FCI Danbury have daily access to medical care and medical staff,” Nelson said in an email. “Inmates who test positive for COVID-19 are evaluated daily by medical staff, and receive temperature checks and symptoms screenings. All inmates are treated in accordance with CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines.”

Both sides reached a settlement agreement in October outlining steps to identify and release as many medically fragile inmates as possible. But since then Harrington and the legal team have had to repeatedly file motions and complaints that the prison wasn’t following the agreement.

A federal judge sided with the inmates on Dec. 12 ordering the release of 17 people who had been held in some cases for months even though they had been approved for furlough or home confinement.

The legal team filed a motion on Dec. 17 again calling the federal BOP out for consistently placing roadblocks to identifying those with conditions that would make them more vulnerable to complications or death from COVID-19.

A judge will hear the motion on Friday

The inmates, speaking up as part of court proceedings, want the BOP to follow the terms of a settlement agreement in the lawsuit that requires the prison to review all inmates for possible release based on their medical status and other factors including a low chance of re-offending.

But, according to the motion, prison officials have routinely failed to include vital medical information in the reviews making about 90% of those who have underlying conditions ineligible for release.

The BOP is also “arbitrarily” requiring some inmates not to have any disciplinary tickets, no matter how minor the offense, in the past year before they can be released and denying people release who have a “low” rather than a “minimal” chance of re-offending once out, the motion said.

As a result, fewer inmates are being released to home confinement under the settlement agreement than during the time prior to the agreement, the legal team said.

“They are not making decisions for home confinement under the terms of the agreement,” Harrington said.

The need to get as many medically fragile inmates released as possible is crucial as a spike of COVID-19 infections is running through the facility which Harrington and others contend is lacking in medical care, best practices in dealing with the pandemic and basic infrastructure safety.

Family members of inmates are concerned but are afraid to speak up publicly. “I can’t even describe the level of medical inadequacy going on there,” said one woman who declined to have her name published out of fear for retaliation against her incarcerated loved one.

The motion and a supplement filed Monday outline deplorable conditions at the prison including a lack of fire alarms and a gas leak that forced female inmates to be housed in a waiting room without heat, clean clothing or showers for days.

The women had to repeatedly beg for their medications including asthma pumps which were left behind when they were told to leave the area impacted by the gas leak, court papers said.

At various times in the past two months inmates who have symptoms of COVID-19 aren’t being tested in a timely fashion and when they are finally tested, they are left in their current housing situation with others for five to seven days until the tests come back, the attorneys said.

In some cases inmates with medical issues are being denied treatment for months including one man who has been waiting to be scheduled for a colonoscopy since October. The man has had blood in his stools since the summer, court papers said. In another case, a woman with a history of cancer has had masses in her genital area and breasts or a year but still hasn’t been scheduled for a biopsy or mammogram, Harrington said.

Nelson contended that medical appointments “for all inmates are scheduled promptly.” But due to COVID-19, “some of these appointments have been by the rescheduled by the provider, similarly to what has frequently happened to you or me in our own communities during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Nelson said.

The entire situation is frustrating and dangerous for inmates who have comorbidities but would likely qualify for home confinement, Harrington said. “This is not the first outbreak in Danbury,” she said. “There was time to handle this differently.”