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Coronavirus has ripped through a southern Michigan prison that houses many of the state's older and medically vulnerable inmates, killing 14 and infecting at least 80 percent of people in two high-risk units.
The staggering statistic from Lakeland Correctional anchors a Huffington Post story on a new class-action lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Corrections. The suit, filed by Dan Manville of the civil rights clinic at Michigan State University Law School, alleges MDOC hasn't done enough to stem the spread of the virus across its more than two dozen facilities.
Among other issues, the complaint alleges that the department has failed to properly isolate sick inmates, provide adequate testing, put in place or enforce social distancing guidelines, and provide adequate cleaning and hygiene supplies.
The suit contends that the MDOC has the means to remedy the situation but has opted not to. The plaintiffs want the court to order the state to implement and enforce the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on social distancing, hygiene and safety during the pandemic.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has resisted calls for inmate releases as the deadly virus spreads through the state's prisons. More than 1,400 Michigan prisoners have tested positive for Covid-19. A little over 3,000 have been tested.
At Lakeland — the only prison to undergo widespread testing — the infection rate is 55 percent across a population of about 1,400. Fourteen have died and more than 50 are hospitalized. Parnall, in Jackson, is also hard hit, with nine deaths across a population of approximately 1,700.
One Lakeland inmate tells Huffington Post that prison officials have more or less thrown up their hands at the problem, conceding '‘'We know you all got it. We’re just letting it run through y’all’s system because there’s nothing we can do to stop it.’”
Inmates said they were earlier this month told to stop reporting mild to moderate Covid symptoms. They reported the prison had abandoned even simple mitigation strategies, like distancing inmates at meal times and quarantining those who may have been exposed to infection.
According to an inmate who spoke to Deadline Detroit before the change, the virus had become impossible to contain. About half of the 160 inmates in his military barracks-style unit were at one point quarantined for possible exposure to infected individuals, but because everyone in the unit may have been exposed through shared bathrooms and other facilities, the quarantine was virtually meaningless, he said.
