Feds appealing last week's judicial order to transfer vulnerable prisoners "out of Elkton through any means"
As reported in this local article, "Federal prosecutors on Monday said they would appeal a federal judge's decision to order the Bureau of Prisons to release or transfer hundreds of inmates at an Ohio federal lock-up where an outbreak of the novel coronavirus killed several inmates." Here is more:
Assistant U.S. Attorney James Bennett filed a motion asking the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati to review U.S. District Judge James Gwin’s Wednesday granting of the ACLU of Ohio for a temporary injunction seeking the release of prisoners from the Federal Correctional Institution Elkton. The BOP announced on Sunday that a seventh inmate at the facility, identified as 55-year-old Richard Nesby, had died due to complications related to the COVID-19 virus.
The filing came just before a scheduled 10:30 a.m. teleconference hearing in which Bennett told Gwin he would also on Monday ask Gwin to put his order on hold. BOP identified more than 800 prisoners who would fall under Gwin's order for the prison to either release or relocate prisoners who are 65 years old and older and those who have certain pre-existing conditions that put them at risk of serious illness associated with the virus.
Gwin gave the government two weeks to determine which prisoners it can release on parole, furlough, compassionate release or home confinement. The government also has the option to move the inmates to other prisons "where appropriate measures, such as testing and single-cell placement, or social distancing, may be accomplished."
Bennett last week requested Gwin's permission to file the list of prisoners under seal. He argued in Monday's hearing that publicly naming those prisoners would divulge their personal and private medical information. Gwin rejected the motion and ordered the government to make public a list that includes the name and prison identification number of each prisoner, and the underlying court and case number for each one. Gwin separately ordered the bureau to give the plaintiffs' lawyers a list of the specific medical conditions that it included in its search criteria....
The ACLU sued after the coronavirus spread among prisoners and staff. It said staff members didn't take proper precautions to protect the inmates and prisons violated the constitutional rights of the inmates. Attorneys for the prisons bureau had urged the judge not to release any inmates, saying the staff was taking the proper precautions to isolate those with the virus, conduct health screenings and identify suitable candidates for home confinement. Gwin, however, wrote that staff wasn't doing enough and believed the prison bureau's number constitutes an undercounting of the actual number of cases at Elkton.
This BOP page on FCI Elkton indicates the facility has an inmate population of just over 2400 persons. I find it remarkable, though not all that surprising, that a full one-third of this population is at-risk according to CDC guidelines.
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