Seven prisoners in Oregon correctional facilities who first filed a class action in federal court last April seeking protection from the spread of COVID-19 increased their stake this week, requiring the federal government to intervene and immediately compel the state to vaccinate all arrested against COVID- 19
Prisoners filed a temporary and injunctive restraining order on Thursday citing what they said was “deliberate indifference” to the health and well-being of thousands of prisoners across the state. The legal case, in part, says that the state’s decision to proceed with vaccinating healthier members of the population before prisoners violates the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The push for vaccination comes during a particularly unnerving moment in the pandemic, with 11 deaths among inmates with COVID-19 in just the past nine days.
At least 3,252 Oregon residents in custody have tested positive for coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, or about a quarter of the prison population.
This is a significantly higher infection rate than the general population of Oregon, but Governor Kate Brown and state officials only agreed to prioritize vaccinating prisoners in response to a recent decision in the process. Healthcare professionals have been eligible for vaccines for a month and teachers will be eligible across the state on Monday.
“While many Oregon residents are eager to be vaccinated as soon as possible and there are competing reasons why different groups might want to make the list, no one can dispute the evidence that incarcerated Oregon residents are at acute risk of infection,” said Juan Chavez, an attorney at the Oregon Justice Resource Center who is representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
Prisoners do not have the opportunity to protect themselves in ways that many people outside of prison can, such as physical detachment and isolation at home, he added, and the state “must be compelled to offer vaccines to all people in custody as soon as possible to protect their health and that of the community at large. “
Oregon’s attorney general’s office and the Department of Corrections declined to comment, citing ongoing legislation.
The suit names Brown, Penitentiary Division Director Colette Peters, Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen, and others. The lawsuit specifically states that Brown and Allen “interfered in the provision of medical care” by prioritizing other members of the population – such as teachers – who do not have the same level of risk as prisoners.
Some prisoners, more than 1,320 that the state considered elderly or at risk – have received vaccines since last week. But that group was accidentally vaccinated, the suit says, and more than 11,500 other inmates remain at risk simply because they are incarcerated.
“Defendants cannot deny that they understand the need to vaccinate their population as quickly as possible, in the same way that they understood that the need to impose the use of masks, social detachment and effective tests were necessary at the beginning of the pandemic,” they wrote. lawyers, citing the state’s attempt to belatedly impose the use of masks on facilities across Oregon in 2020.
The lawsuit claims that Oregon officials “took half measures” and did not quickly administer vaccines to prisoners “means that they have been deliberately indifferent”.
Thirty-eight prisoners with COVID-19 have died since the pandemic began.
Three state prisons recorded COVID-19 outbreaks of 500 or more cases, according to the state’s January 21 outbreak report. The five biggest outbreaks in the state occurred in prisons, with 607 cases from the Instituto Correcional Dois Rios de Umatilla leading the way. This includes prisoners, workers and others who have been infected by close contact. The largest active outbreak is 129 prisoners at the Umatilla facility.
In all, 772 correctional officials have tested positive since the pandemic began.
Thursday’s statewide outbreak report does not include the newest major outbreak – at the Santiam Correctional Institute. On Friday, 68 prisoners tested positive at the Salem institution, bringing the total to 86.
Prisons already face a number of age-old problems – cramped quarters, a understaffed nursing department and the fact that prisoners’ health tends to be worse than that of people of the same age outside custody.
According to a statement referenced in the lawsuit, state officials said that prisoners continue to operate “laundry, food and physical facilities operations” with infected workers from different prison units, leading to a new transmission from prisoner to prisoner.
Corrections spokeswoman Jennifer Black said 1,343 inmates, many of whom recently received vaccines by mistake, “were older adults or had medical or other vulnerabilities – or both”. She said these prisoners will receive a second dose.
The “failure to communicate,” she noted, was the department’s determination that prisoners had qualified for phase 1A assembled care guidelines, when, the department later found out, this was only true for inmates who were “working.” in health facilities in “a state prison.
She noted that 316 inmates under the age of 60 received vaccines during that wave. The corrections department offered vaccines to 1,558 inmates deemed eligible, but some refused to accept the dose.
In general, she added, other adults in custody will be included in the next phase 1B of the vaccine launch, with state officials claiming that “they will conduct these vaccinations effectively and efficiently using the existing supply”.
But there is still no set date for when the more than 11,000 remaining inmates will be eligible for the vaccine. “They will be at some point after all seniors are eligible,” said Black, “then in March.”
– Andrew Theen; [email protected]; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen