Coronavirus CT: ACLU Lawsuit Demands Prisoner Release

CONNECTICUT — The ACLU of Connecticut on Friday filed a lawsuit demanding that Gov. Ned Lamont release prisoners who are at risk from the coronavirus.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and four prisoners, including one with an autoimmune condition, one who's at least 60 years old, one who is scheduled for release in May, and one who has one lung.

"People who are incarcerated in Connecticut are in imminent danger from COVID-19," Dan Barrett, the ACLU of Connecticut’s legal director and an attorney on the case, said in a news release. "The longer Connecticut fails to act to protect them, the closer our state comes to a deadly and unconstitutional disaster."

Max Reiss, Lamont’s director of communications, said the state is doing all it can.

"The administration is reviewing the lawsuit and will not comment on pending litigation at this time," Reiss said. "All measures taken during this public health emergency have been to maximize public health outcomes wherever possible, especially inside our correctional institutions in the interests of both staff and incarcerated individuals."

And late Friday afternoon during a press conference Friday afternoon on the state’s latest coronavirus response efforts, Lamont said: “We are doing everything in the name of public health." He said some non-violent offenders and others who are nearing release dates may soon be released. He said he’s “most concerned about the elderly in prisons now,” noting many don’t have a place to go.

Reiss emailed Patch Friday night saying, "The administration is reviewing the lawsuit and will not comment on pending litigation at this time. All measures taken during this public health emergency have been to maximize public health outcomes wherever possible, especially inside our correctional institutions in the interests of both staff and incarcerated individuals.”

As of Friday, 53 inmates, including eight juveniles, and 16 staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus in Connecticut prisons and jails. Three are prisoners at the Corrigan-Radgowski Corrections Center in Uncasville and five are at the Willard-Cybulski Correctional Institution in Enfield.

• Related: Coronavirus Montville: 2nd Corrigan-Radgowski Inmate Positive

"Thousands of people who are incarcerated right now could be safely with their families, posing no danger to the public and out of harm’s way themselves, if the state were simply to act," Barrett said.

What the lawsuit asks

The suit asks the court to order Lamont and state Department of Corrections commissioner Cook to "immediately release people who are vulnerable to serious illness based on CDC heightened risk factors, being held pre-trial on lesser charges or low bond amounts, being held solely for technical violation of probation or parole, eligible for home confinement or supervised release, or within six months of the end of their sentence."

The suit also asks the court to require Lamont and Cook to submit a plan to provide hygiene, social distancing, diagnoses and treatment for people who remain incarcerated; approve residential placements within seven days for those eligible for release; and fund transitional housing for those without residences to go to upon release.

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Yale Law School lawyers have joined the case

Joining the ACLU of Connecticut are lawyers from Yale Law School’s Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic and Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization.

The suit follows an ACLU request on March 26 for the Judicial Branch to consider changing pretrial release rules during the COVID-19 pandemic. With that request was a letter from a group of Connecticut medical professionals, who wrote: "Based on current staffing levels in CDOC (including correctional health staffing levels), and based on our experience working within correctional facilities and with affected populations, we do not believe that screening, social distancing, and quarantining measures can be sufficiently employed within CDOC facilities to combat the spread of this virus."

The suit also follows letters sent on March 10, 12, 16, and 19 from the ACLU of Connecticut and other organizations to Governor Lamont and Commissioner Cook asking for urgent measures to protect incarcerated people from COVID-19.