Quick steps urged to curb covid-19’s spread in prisons

LITTLE ROCK — With a hearing on a request to release elderly and medically frail inmates from state prisons still 10 days away, attorneys asked a federal judge Monday to require prison officials to immediately implement social-distancing and sanitation measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

“It is essential that these basic preventive measures be taken immediately to slow the rapid spread of the virus in [Arkansas Department of Corrections] facilities,” said a motion in a lawsuit filed last week on behalf of inmates in the Cummins, Varner and Ouachita River units.

“If preventative measures are not taken immediately, hundreds of additional incarcerated people and staff in ADC facilities throughout Arkansas will likely contract the virus,” attorneys for the inmates argued, noting that in the previous 10 days, the number of infected prisoners had grown by more than 500%.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys said they asked attorneys for the state to agree Friday to “much of the relief requested,” but the state’s attorneys said they couldn’t agree to a partial temporary restraining order before they officially respond to the lawsuit and before the hearing. U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker has scheduled a hearing on a requested restraining order and preliminary injunction to begin at 9 a.m. May 7 in her Little Rock courtroom.

“There is no cure for COVID-19,” the disease caused by the virus, “and once contracted, it can have life-threatening consequences for incarcerated persons, particularly for those who have underlying medical conditions, have a disability, or are over the age of 50,” said the filing by attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Disability Rights Arkansas and the Arkansas Civil Liberties Union Foundation.

The attorneys noted that at the Cummins Unit, one of the department’s largest facilities, 856 inmates had tested positive for the virus by Monday.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge have said prison and health officials are taking effective measures to protect the inmates.

In addition to seeking release of some prisoners, the lawsuit seeks safer accommodations for other prisoners.

Monday’s filing asserted prison officials “should have undertaken these protective measures long before” the lawsuit was filed April 21. It alleges prison officials have violated inmates’ rights by forcing them to live less than 6 feet apart in crowded barracks without soap or other products to fight the spread of the virus.

Attorneys for prison officials hadn’t responded to the motion by Monday evening.