Supreme Court Allows California Jails To Not Enforce Pandemic Protections
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court overruled a federal judge's previous order mandating that California's Orange County jails take steps to protect inmates from the coronavirus.
Los Angeles Times:
U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Mandate Requiring Better Coronavirus Protections For Orange County Inmates
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday freed Orange County jails from a federal judge’s order that required social distancing among inmates, regular testing and distribution of cleaning supplies and hand sanitizers. Acting by a 5-4 vote, the justices granted an emergency appeal from the county’s lawyers and put on hold an order issued in late May by U.S. District Judge Jesus G. Bernal. As usual, the justices in the majority did not explain their decision. (Savage, 8/5)
Orange County Register:
U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Judge’s Order That OC Jail Must Take Better Care Of Inmates Exposed To Coronavirus
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg offered a dissenting opinion Wednesday. “This Court normally does not reward bad behavior, and certainly not with extraordinary equitable relief,” they wrote. “The injunction’s requirements are not remarkable. In fact, the Jail initially claimed that it had already implemented each and every one of them.” The dissenting opinion noted that the 3,000-inmate jail system had recently reported 15 new cases in a single week. (Saavedra, 8/5)
In other news about treatment at jails —
AP:
Feds Propose Consent Decree To Ensure Care At Virginia Jail
The Justice Department proposed Wednesday that a Virginia jail comply with a consent decree requiring officials to improve medical treatment for inmates, marking one of the first times the department has proposed such a resolution in the Trump administration. The rare action follows a multiyear investigation into the practices at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Portsmouth, Virginia, which prosecutors said uncovered unlawful conditions for the inmates housed there. Federal officials allege, in part, that the jail “fails to provide constitutionally adequate mental health care to prisoners,” according to court documents. (Balsamo, 8/5)
The Marshall Project:
A State-By-State Look At Coronavirus In Prisons
Since March, The Marshall Project has been tracking how many people are being sickened and killed by COVID-19 in prisons and how widely it has spread across the country and within each state. Here, we will regularly update these figures counting the number of people infected and killed nationwide and in each prison system until the crisis abates. (7/30)
