Judge mandates outside help for NC prisons’ response to pandemic
A judge appointed a Duke University administrator on Friday to help with North Carolina’s management of prisons during the coronavirus pandemic.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Vince Rozier’s ruling follows civil rights groups once again asking him to appoint a special master to oversee prisons’ response during the pandemic as COVID-19 cases continue to climb, shutting down facilities and resulting in mass transfers that could further spread the virus to vulnerable communities, they said.
Rozier appointed Thomas K. Maher, executive director of Duke’s Wilson Center for Science and Justice, as special master.
Rozier also ordered that all prison staff who have contact with offenders be tested every two weeks.
It’s appropriate now to seek assistance from a special master, Rozier said, particularly in the process of reviewing prisoners who are being considered for extended limits of confinement, which allows qualified offenders to serve out the remainder of their sentence outside of prisons.
‘I get the final word’
Maher will be asked to consult with the state and the civil rights organizations to ensure there is compliance with the court’s orders related to reducing the population, testing, safe transfers and other concerns, Rozier said.
The details of the special master’s role will be provided in a forthcoming written order, Rozier said. Rozier asked an attorney for the plaintiffs to draft the order but gave the state two days to provide an alternative order and its own suggestions.
Rozier hopes the special master will be able to provide guidance to the two sides to address issues more swiftly, as opposed to coming back to court.
“If there is no agreement, then obviously, I get the final word,” Rozier said, or the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court if someone appeals.
Todd Ishee, North Carolina Commissioner of Prisons, said Friday in a statement that the department is doing everything it can to keep employees and incarcerated people safe. He said he welcomes the appointment of an independent person to review and highlight the “exceptional work of prison staff,” he said.
“We are all in this together and our collective approach must be to stop the spread of this highly contagious virus,” he said.
Challenges in NC prisons
Since the court’s last review, state officials “have taken a bad situation and made it worse,” Leah Kang, an ACLU of North Carolina attorney, told Rozier on Friday.
The situation is compounded by the state’s failure to reduce its population enough and about 1,000 people waiting to transfer to state prisons from county jails, according to a recent court filing by plaintiffs that also include the N.C. NAACP, Disability Rights North Carolina, and three people who are in prison.
“These developments will almost certainly result in more COVID-19 outbreaks and more human suffering, illness and death,” states a plaintiffs’ Thursday court filing.
The statements were made during a Friday status update hearing related to the a lawsuit filed in April. The lawsuit contends Gov. Roy Cooper, Secretary of the N.C. Department of Public Safety Erik Hooks and others aren’t doing enough to protect North Carolina’s about 30,000 people in state prisons from the coronavirus.
Progressing COVID-19 numbers
Rozier said Friday he called the hearing as COVID-19 numbers are “progressing” and after hearing reports of the prison closings.
Assistant Attorney General Orlando Rodriguez said state officials have been working diligently and swiftly to prevent COVID-19 in prisons with various actions. Those actions include testing that is more robust than in the general population, reducing the prison population to an all-time low and increasing eligibility of those who could be released early.
The mortality from COVID-19 in prisons is 0.4% compared to 1.4% in the general population.
“All of these numbers are not easy to hear, but much of this is going to happen regardless” of how much time and energy they put into responding, Rodriguez said.
Mass movements are necessary and expected as prisons work to adjust to staff staying home due to being sick or in quarantine, Rodriguez said, and executed following detailed plans that follow health officials’ recommendations.
“All of the offenders that were moved, were moved to portions of facilities that did not have offenders in them,” he said.
New testing in prisons
On Monday the state announced it started testing every two weeks staff at prisons with COVID-19 outbreaks until the facility’s outbreak ends. Staff at intake facilities and those who work with vulnerable populations will also be tested.
The steps are on top of random tests of 5% of staff at all facilities every week, which the state announced Nov. 9.
According to court documents, in recent months the state increased testing of inmates to between 8,000 and 10,000 each month, with a projected cost of $6.4 million to $8 million.
Rozier said while outbreaks are limited to a small percentage of facilities, he is concerned that they appear to roll from place to place.
He also questioned whether statements made by state attorneys outlining the need to shut down facilities and move inmates due to strains on resources, is an indication that North Carolina needs help managing the prisons.
Last month, three state prisons were closed and hundreds of inmates were transferred to other facilities across the state due to the high number of COVID-19 cases and staff that have had to stay home at some facilities, state officials said at a Nov. 25 briefing.
The state has also maxed out on hospital bed capacity for inmates, the briefing said.
Preliminary order
In a June 18 order for a preliminary injunction, Rozier had found plaintiffs would likely succeed in proving the state’s actions had resulted in cruel and unusual punishment, which violates federal constitutional rights in the Eighth Amendment and a state law.
Rozier ordered the state to:
▪ Reopen the application process for programs willing to be early-release partners for incarcerated people.
▪ Test inmates before transferring them or placing them in isolation for 14 days.
▪ Create a plan to test all inmates and identify disparities and weaknesses in prisons’ response to COVID-19.
Rozier also authorized state officials to identify new factors that could reduce some inmates’ sentences.
In hearings and discussions that have followed the decision, plaintiffs have asked Rozier to appoint a “special master” to oversee the process.
They have also asked the state to continue to provide information on their COVID-19 responses as well as justifications as to why it hasn’t implemented more testing or let more people out of jail.
The state has replied that while it has increased testing, funding and nursing shortfalls limit its capacity.
25 deaths
As of Friday morning, there had been 64,187 COVID-19 tests completed in North Carolina prisons and 5,799 positive results, according to information provided by the Department of Public Safety.
Twenty-five people incarcerated in state prisons have died. There are 502 active cases and 4,728 have recovered.
Plaintiffs argued that all of the individuals who have died had underlying health conditions. Nearly 14,000 people remaining in prison have at least one risk factor that makes them vulnerable to COVID-19 and more than 1,000 people are 65 years or older, according to court documents.
Since Nov. 5, the number of offenders’ hospitalizations has risen from seven to 18, according to the state’s website.
This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 12:53 PM.
