SALT LAKE CITY – A Utah State Prison inmate is suing the Utah Department of Corrections in an effort to prevent the shuffling of large groups of prisoners from one building to another.
Damon Crist says the practice has sparked widespread outbreaks of COVID-19 in prison since October. The spread continued in the following months, infecting more than 2,600 inmates, including 12 who later died.
“I’m not asking for cash compensation. I’m not asking to be released,” Crist told Deseret News during a call from the prison’s Draper website. “I’m just saying, ‘Look, the department is moving people recklessly. It’s causing massive outbreaks and it’s infecting and killing people.'”
Crist joins other inmates claiming that their requests to see a doctor or nurse went unanswered. And his lawsuit comes amid requests for an investigation into how the prison handled the outbreaks.
“I think there needs to be a lot more transparency about the circumstances in which deaths in custody occurred, a lot more transparency about medical care provided to people in custody and there really needs to be a legislative audit,” said Sara Wolovick, a focused ACLU lawyer prisoners’ rights.
Crist says handling the virus in prison amounts to cruel and unusual punishment for prisoners and violates the Utah Constitution’s ban on “excessive rigor” for prisoners. The prison also runs counter to its own policy on employee conduct, which undermines the safety of employees and inmates, he said.
In one example, officials instructed a sick prisoner who was short of breath and passed out to “take a deep breath,” said Crist in his lawsuit.
He alleges deliberate indifference on the part of the state, a legal standard considered the limit for successful legal claims against jail and prison. They are generally held responsible only if it is clear that they knew that medical care was inadequate, Wolovick said, creating an incentive for authorities to avoid scrutiny of care.
“The legal scenario for medical care for incarcerated people rewards ignorance on a practical level,” said Wolovick. But an external review could provide details, she noted.
A Utah Department of Corrections spokeswoman declined to comment, citing the pending legal action.
The agency said it takes many factors into account when moving those in its care to new areas and works with state and local health officials to decide how best to separate inmates with a positive test from those with a negative test for COVID-19.
Crist says that an initial move on October 23 brought several with COVID-19 to the premises of Lone Peak, where he lived at the time, he claims in a handwritten petition for extraordinary relief, filed last month at the 3rd District Court of Salt Lake City. During the course of the move, negative and positive prisoners remained in the same dorms for hours, he said.
“None of the transferred prisoners were tested for COVID-19, or even asked if they had symptoms,” he said in the process.
It took him a few days to get sick with a cough and fever. Crist said he tested positive in the first week of November, but continues to have difficulty breathing and brain fog.
Some people around him struggle to get out of bed, he said, while others have no symptoms.
A total of 1,065 inmates and 63 employees are considered to have active cases of COVID-19, according to Tuesday’s department data, the most recent available.
He claims that the Utah Department of Corrections does not have the resources to deal with massive outbreaks, with some nurses administering several COVID-19 tests without changing gloves.
Judge Keith Kelly ordered the department last week to respond to the allegations within 30 days. The agency has not yet done so.
Crist, a paralegal, said he is looking forward to serving his sentence for theft so he can return to work on managing construction projects. He is trying to stop movements at least until the prisoners receive a coronavirus vaccine. State health officials said they expected state prisoners to be vaccinated in March.
Crist also wants the judge to order corrective officials to wear N95 masks, change gloves after each test, and institute a two-week quarantine protocol for any movements required because of a medical order or a significant threat.
Others have challenged coronavirus protocols for incarcerated Utahns, but previous legal efforts have been unsuccessful.
ACLU and defense lawyers filed a lawsuit in April in an effort to force the release of those awaiting trial, older inmates and medically vulnerable people, but the Utah Supreme Court rejected the offer with based on the procedure.
The judges considered that the groups had no legitimacy to open the case, in part because they were not directly affected by prison policies.
A federal judge at the United States District Court for Salt Lake City also dismissed an action by federal prisoners held in Weber County Jail, but did not stop them from reliving the case in the future.
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Annie Knox