Attorneys argue over inmate spacing

LITTLE ROCK — U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker heard arguments Tuesday from attorneys seeking to force the Arkansas Department of Corrections to begin spacing inmates 6 feet apart and provide them with more effective hygiene products to fight the spread of covid-19.

The attorneys represent inmates at three state prisons — including the Cummins Unit, the location of the largest outbreak in the state — who sued the state agency last week in federal court, seeking improved hygienic conditions and the release of thousands of inmates held in overcrowded prisons.

Since then, the number of infections at the Cummins Unit have continued to rise, reaching 860 cases Tuesday.

Citing the rapid spread of infections at the Cummins Unit, attorneys for the inmates this week asked Baker to issue an immediate injunction addressing some of their concerns, including a request to provide inmates with alcohol-based disinfectants (which are banned in prison) and to begin social distancing “to the maximum extent possible” within open barracks.

“If preventative measures are not taken immediately, hundreds of additional incarcerated people and staff in ADC facilities throughout Arkansas will likely contract the virus,” stated the petition, which was written by attorneys with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

The American Civil Liberties Union, Disability Rights Arkansas and firms in New York and New Haven are also representing the 11 male inmates involved in the lawsuit.

On Tuesday, Baker held a hearing on that request. After more than an hour of arguments, Baker said she would take the matter under advisement. She didn’t issue a ruling later in the day.

At the hearing, lawyers in Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office argued state prisons are already taking reasonable steps to protect inmates — such as supplying them with masks and liquid soap — and additional requests being made by the inmates are untenable in a prison setting.

“These prisons were not constructed to house people six feet apart, they were constructed on an open-barracks model,” said Assistant Solicitor General Asher Steinberg.

Most of the state’s more than 16,000 inmates are housed in open barracks rather than one- or two-man cells, according to prison officials. Those barracks typically house dozens of men who sleep on cots and share bathrooms and showers.

Dina Tyler, a spokeswoman with the Department of Corrections, said inmates are provided with two bars of soap a week in addition to liquid hand soap. Bathrooms and common areas are cleaned “as often as needed” by inmate porters who also restock the soap dispensers, Tyler said.

The inmates’ request for an injunction lists more than a dozen additional actions sought from prison officials, from providing paper towels, sponges, brushes and disinfectants to posting signs with hygiene instructions and guarantees against retaliation for those who report poor conditions.