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Everything’s Running Backwards (Or Sideways) at the BOP – Update for March 3, 2022

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

THE BOP’S COLLAPSING COVID UNIVERSE

hawking220303The famed physicist Stephen Hawking theorized that there would come a time when the universe stopped expanding and would start collapsing instead. When that happened, he said, time (and everything else) would run backward.

The BOP has made it happen. How else does one explain the fact that the total number of COVID tests done by the agency peaked at 129,677 on January 25, 2022, and has fallen ever since? As of last night, the BOP claimed to have tested 790 fewer people since April 2020 than it claimed to have tested a little more than a month ago.

At this rate, the BOP is “untesting” more inmates a day than it is testing.

This is not surprising. The total number of inmate COVID cases peaked a year ago in February and then began a steady decline that made keeping accurate records of how many BOP prisons had caught the virus since April 2020 impossible. The number dropped by 5,300 until just before Christmas. In other words, about 3% of the inmate population “uncaught” COVID in the last year.

How is this possible? Only Hawking knows…

Then there’s the problem with the official vaccine count. Forty-one BOP facilities claim to have vaccinated more than 100% of their inmates. For instance, FCI La Tuna (on the Texas-New Mexico state line) has an inmate population of 967. Yet as of last Friday it claimed to have vaccinated 1,239 inmates. To be sure, inmates come and go. Some transfer, some are released, some newbies arrive. But across the system, the BOP claims to have vaccinated more than 4,000 prisoners than it has in custody.

ratchet211108A year ago, the agency quietly adopted the voodoo standard that it would subtract from its inmate COVID total anyone who had gotten COVID while a BOP prisoner but later was released. Sort of like the person was never an inmate and the COVID case had never occurred. That metric was weird enough, apparently intended to obscure how badly the BOP COVID mitigation plan had failed. Ironically, the agency has seemed to go the other way on vaccinations: a prison counts an inmate vaccination on its tally long after the prisoner is released.

The BOP keeps its finger on the COVID scale. Its rule for recordkeeping is to adopt whatever standard that makes it look good, accuracy be damned.

The BOP claimed 459 inmates recovered from COVID between a week ago last Friday and last Wednesday. But then, only three recovered over the next three days. As of Friday, 1,253 prisoners and 1,019 employees were sick. As of last night, the number fell to 475 inmates and 671 staff still with COVID. The BOP said COVID remained in 113 facilities.

At least 305 inmates remain dead. There’s not much the BOP can do about those numbers. The BOP reported last week that two inmates, one at Tucson and one at FMC Lexington, have died of COVID. One got sick on January 14 and was quickly declared “recovered” on January 24. The second got sick on January 18, and “recovered” even more quickly, after only seven days.

Despite being declared “recovered… in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines,” as the BOP always defensively puts it, one prisoner went to the hospital eight days after recovery and died there. The other died in his cell.

The BOP currently reports that 70.7% of staff and 76.4% of inmates have been vaccinated. Both of those numbers are squishy for reasons already mentioned. (The total number of BOP employees (36,553) has dropped by 138 over the past few weeks).

Threatening to lock up BOP employees: Great for morale in an agency that can't hold on to workers...
Threatening to lock up BOP employees: Great for morale in an agency that can’t hold on to workers…

Remember a month ago, when a BOP employee gave two U.S. senators a tour of FCI Danbury after the top brass there refused them entrance? On Feb 11 Shaun Boylan, a BOP financial program specialist and vice president of the BOP employees’ union at Danbury, has filed a complaint with the BOP’s Equal Employment Opportunity Office claiming he has been repeatedly retaliated against for engaging in union activities, including giving Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy (both D-CT) a tour of the facility in January.

Boylan said the harassment included his supervisor telling others that “I would be assigned to the phone room and that criminal charges are pending against me.”

The BOP said it “altered” the congressional tour to maintain COVID-19 protocols. Danbury FCI is currently the subject of a federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration complaint for its COVID management.

At this point, does COVID matter anymore? The Wall Street Journal suggests we’re not out of the woods yet. The paper said last week that a more infectious type of the Omicron variant, known as BA.2, “has surged to account for more than a third of global Covid-19 cases sequenced recently, adding to the debate about whether countries are ready for full reopening.” Health authorities are examining whether BA.2 could extend the length of Covid-19 waves that have peaked recently.

“We’re looking not only at how quickly those peaks go up, but how they come down,” World Health Organization epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said. “And as the decline in cases occurs…we also need to look at: Is there a slowing of that decline? Or will we start to see an increase again?”

BOP Press Release, Inmate Death at FMC Lexington (February 24, 2022)

BOP Press Release, Inmate Death at USP Tucson (February 24, 2022)

CTInsider, Records: Danbury federal prison named in two complaints alleging work place issues, infrastructure problems (February 22, 2022)

Wall Street Journal, Fast-Spreading Covid-19 Omicron Type Revives Questions About Opening Up (February 23, 2022

– Thomas L. Root

“It’s a Miracle!” People Say, as BOP Cures 2,000 Inmates in One Day – Update for February 8, 2022

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

MIRABILE DICTU

Miracle200513That is, “speaking of wonders…”

Medicine has not seen such an achievement in two millenia: between last Wednesday and Thursday, the BOP cured almost 1,968 inmates of COVID. COVID numbers, totaling 7,787 sick prisoners on January 28 had dropped to 5,581 as of last night.

Of course, if this were a real medical miracle, you’d expect the number of institutions with COVID to fall, and staff cases to decline as well. No such luck. Staff with COVID increase 152 to 2,057, and the number of institutions with outbreaks total 131. As of last weekend, Oakdale II has 397 cases, Yazoo City USP 277, FCC Lompoc has 223, and Oakdale I has 214. Twelve more locations have more than 100 sick, and 14 more have over 50. A full 86 prisons have 10 or more inmate COVID cases.

While the BOP does report daily infection tallies for each of its facilities, experts say those counts likely miss a large number of infections. Stat said the BOP does not report granular enough testing data to calculate so-called test positivity rates, a measure often used in public health to estimate what percentage of a population likely has Covid-19, given not every person in a community is typically tested at one time.

numbers180327What’s more, the BOP’s declaring inmates “recovered” from COVID has by now become a sad joke. Of the 53 BOP inmates who have died from COVID since March 1 of last year, the BOP had previously declared 53% to be “recovered.” Epidemiologist Homer Venters, M.D., has cautioned against the very questionable BOP practice:

People that tested positive, let’s say three, four weeks ago, may be considered recovered or not part of active cases…When you kind of wave a wand over people and say they’re recovered, my experience going into jails and prisons is many of them are not actually recovered. Many of them have new shortness of breath, chest pain, ringing in the ears, headaches. Other very serious symptoms.

The problem is systemic. “On his first day in office, President Biden promised to order the BOP to reevaluate its Covid-19 protocols and release additional data on the spread of the virus in prisons. But that specific order never came,”  Stat said last week. “And now, as Covid-19 is spiking in multiple federal prisons around the country, spurred by the Omicron variant and still-substandard infection control, advocates say that the BOP’s Covid-19 protocols are as broken as ever.”

Stat said that at Danbury, “it’s not just Omicron driving the surge. There were 234 new cases in a population of roughly 1,000 people during the month of January, according to data compiled by a team at the University of Iowa, but there’s no frequent testing and those in quarantine aren’t being monitored for worsening symptoms.”

inhumanecovidinmate220124And at Alderson, Stat quoted an attorney for inmates at FPC Alderson as saying the situation there is worse, although there’s even less information accessible. Available data suggest that Alderson experienced serious spikes in new Covid-19 cases during both late December and late January. The lawyer said there are likely more women with COVID in the facility than the available data show, because the facility is not testing widely.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram was blunt: “Two years into the pandemic, federal prisons — including one in Fort Worth — still do not have COVID-19 under control. Executive staff at federal prisons are failing to follow the Bureau of Prisons’ COVID-19 response plan, according to a federal report. FMC Carswell, a women’s medical prison in Fort Worth, does not have a facility-specific plan, employee union representatives said… ‘It’s been pure chaos,” [one inmate,] who is incarcerated at the prison, said. “Carswell is still without a plan.”

Jennifer Howard, president of the union representing more than 400 FMC Carswell employees, said executive staff leaves union representatives out of the loop on COVID-19 discussions and safety plans. During the most recent meeting between union representatives and Carswell executive staff, Howard said, an executive staff member told reps, “I wish we could tell you we had a plan right now.”

Stat, Despite Biden’s big promises and a far better understanding of the virus, Covid-19 is still raging through the nation’s prisons (February 2, 2022)

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Cases spike at Fort Worth prison; whistleblower complaint says top staff have no COVID plan (January 31, 2022)

KXAS-TV, Seagoville Federal Prison COVID-Cases Fall Drastically, Expert Warns Against New Data as Family Mourns Loss (August 14, 2020)

– Thomas L. Root

Unrest in the BOP Over COVID… It’s Staff and Senators, Not Inmates – Update for February 1, 2022

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

COVID KEEPS ON GIVING

sick220201A week ago Monday, the Bureau of Prisons broke a record.  On that day, the BOP reported 9,531 inmate cases, a crest that fell to 7,808 by last Thursday (thanks in no small part to the BOP’s aggressive practice of writing off inmates as “COVID recovered” after 10 days).

The BOP failed to report case numbers last Friday, Jan 28. But yesterday, the number was still at 7,724, a number above last year’s record of 7,690.

Staff numbers (which the BOP cannot manipulate by declaring people to be recovered, u it can with inmate numbers) climbed 26% from the Friday before to 1,956. Staff cases are flirting with the all-time high of 2,107 set on January 13, 2021.

The BOP reported five more inmate deaths last week, one each at FMC Ft Worth, FMC Butner and Butner I, FCI Mendota (California) and Coleman Medium. This raises the total of BOP and private-facility inmate deaths to somewhere over 300. The Ft. Worth death was the 17th inmate COVID fatality at the facility.

The BOP numbers do not include Juanita Haynes. Ms. Haynes, who unsuccessfully sought compassionate release from FPC Alderson women’s facility last summer, filed again for release on December 23 even as COVID gripped her. Too little, too late. Ms. Haynes was placed on a ventilator the day after Christmas. On January 3rd, her sentencing judge finally believed her, and granted compassionate release.

inmateCOVIDrights220124

“Ms. Haynes is currently suffering from a life-threatening case of COVID-19 and is unfortunately showing no signs of improvement,” the judge wrote. “Additionally, ICU staff have advised that if she is to recover from her current state, she will require a long-term tracheostomy. In light of these facts, the court concludes that Ms. Haynes’ current medical status amounts to a serious medical condition constituting extraordinary and compelling reason.”

Juanita Haynes died two days later, never coming out of her medically-induced coma to learn that she was a free woman. The BOP’s environment killed her, but because she expired after her release was ordered, it does not count her in its death total

ABC News reported last Wednesday that two U.S. Senators who had arranged to inspect FCI Danbury with labor union leaders and two state lawmakers “were barred from seeing the main women’s facility but were able to see a men’s unit after a ‘fight’ to gain access.”

Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy (both D-Conn) sought to examine Danbury conditions in response to correctional officers’ complaints about a staffing shortage and lack of COVID precautions.

nosebusiness220201“There was clearly a decision made to try to stop both of us from seeing some of the conditions at this prison,” Senator Murphy said afterward. “This facility, even during COVID, should be open for inspection by policymakers. We need to see it during good times, but we also need to see it during bad times. And if the Bureau of Prisons has decided that US lawmakers are not going to be able to see what is really happening inside these prisons during a crisis, that’s a problem.”

The Denver Gazette reported Friday that BOP staff at FCI Englewood charged that the BOP had failed to “properly screen staff or broadly test inmates for COVID-19… ignoring federal guidance despite repeated pleas from the union that represents the facility’s workers.”

The result, the workers alleged, is the “largely unchecked spread of the virus in the sort of setting that has been a hotbed for outbreaks for nearly two years.” As of Thursday, Englewood reported 12 sick inmates and 18 sick staffers.

Inmates at FCI Englewood have to “beg and plead” to get tested, the Gazette said one union official had said, and “he alleged that the understaffed, in-house medical team had told some symptomatic inmates that they just have allergies.”

The Gazette said that in response to its inquiries, the BOP “said it would begin requiring enhanced screening for anyone entering the facility — the kind that employees say they’ve sought for months — starting Friday.”

As of yesterday, FCI Oakdale I reported 494 cases and Yazoo City Medium had 475. Five facilities had 200 or more cases, another 15 had more than 100 cases, and 24 more had 50 or over.

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Man’s death marks the 17th prisoner death from COVID at Federal Medical Center Fort Worth (January 27, 2022)

Lewisburg, West Virginia, Daily News, Three Alderson Inmates Have Died Due To COVID-19 (January 26, 2022)

ABC News, Senators say they were denied full access to federal prison (January 26, 2022)

Corrections1, Federal prison in Colo. allowing COVID to spread largely unchecked, employees say (January 31, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root

COVID Rages… – Update for January 24, 2022

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

BREAKING RECORDS


numberone210326The Federal Bureau of Prisons maintained its streak, ending last week with a record-breaking 9,020 active inmate COVID cases. This is 17% higher than the previous worst week ever for COVID, when the BOP reported 7,690 sick inmates 56 weeks ago, on December 28, 2020 .

Last week’s total was 48% higher than the week before. At the same time, 1,432 BOP staff are down with COVID, a 52% increase over a week ago. Two more inmate deaths have been reported officially, two women, ages 30 and 59, at FPC Alderson.

The worst COVID conditions as of Friday were Yazoo City Medium (664 cases); Carswell (316 cases); and Herlong, Lompoc, Berlin, Yazoo City USP, Loretto, Los Angeles MDC and Marianna, all with more than 200 cases. Another 21 facilities reported between 100 and 200 cases.

The timing couldn’t be worse for the BOP’s pending motion in the class-action suit over its handling of COVID at Lompoc. Last Tuesday, the federal judge hearing the BOP’s motion to dissolve a July 14, 2020, preliminary injunction – that ordered the release of vulnerable inmates to home confinement – ruled that two facility reports by Dr. Homer Venters, a court-appointed infectious disease expert were admissible in the case.

The reports based on inspections in September 2020 and April 2021, were strenuosly objected to by the BOP. The judge held that the reports “have sufficient guarantees of trustworthiness, are more probative regarding the conditions at Lompoc than other evidence.”

The court asked Dr. Venters for an update on conditions at Lompoc, just as a local newspaper reported that 294 Lompoc inmates had COVID.

plaguevictim220124

“Having found Dr. Venters’ reports are admissible, the court finds a more recent report from [him] regarding the current conditions at Lompoc is needed prior to ruling on respondents’ motion for summary judgment and motion to dissolve [the preliminary injunction],” the Court said.

Despite complaints to the Attorney General by Sens Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, and Rep Jahana Hayes (all D-CT) over what they described as “highly disturbing” reports that FCI Danbury was not following COVID-19 isolation guidelines, conditions “appear to have improved little” at the facility, according to allegations by BOP staff and a lawyer involved in an inmate COVID lawsuit there. The News-Times reported that about 80 inmates — some allegedly at higher risk — had been relocated in Danbury’s auditorium, and staff is “still not being provided appropriate personal protective equipment, according to Sarah Russell, director of the Legal Clinic at Quinnipiac University School of Law and a Quinnipiac law professor.”

The News-Times said the BOP responded that the agency follows CDC guidance, “the same as community doctors and hospitals, with regard to quarantine and medical isolation procedures, along with providing appropriate treatment.”

Vaccinesticker211005The CDC reported last Friday that Pfizer and Moderna vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization from Covid-19 omicron was 81% from two weeks until about 6 months after dose two, 59% after six months after dose two and 90% at least two weeks after a booster dose. The report issued the same day an federal court in Houston halted President Biden’s federal employee vaccine mandate.

This means that the 30% of BOP employees who have so far ignored the mandate when it was in place are unlikely to get a vaccine now that it’s gone away.

Not that vaccinations matter in the real world that much. As of last Friday, the BOP reports it has fully inoculated 1,511 Carswell inmates (despite Carswell only having a population of 1,296). Yet 312 inmates have COVID.

Santa Maria Times, 294 Lompoc federal prison inmates, staff test positive for COVID-19 (January 21, 2022)

Order, Torres v. Milusnic, Case No. CV 20-4450 (C.D. Cal. January 18, 2022)

Wall Street Journal, Third Dose of Pfizer, Moderna Covid-19 Vaccines Offers Strong Protection Against Omicron (January 21, 2022)

Feds for Medical Freedom v. Biden, Case No. 3:21-cv-356, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11145 (S.D. Tex, January 21, 2022)

BOP COVID webpage (January 23, 2022)

News-Times, Reports from FCI Danbury show little change since legislators call for change (January 16, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root

January 2022 Really Is January 2021 Redux – Update for January 11, 2022

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

COVID ROILS THE BOP

control200511BOP inmate COVID cases shot up last week at a rate not before seen since the pandemic started. On the last reporting day in 2021 (Thursday, Dec 30), 1,194 inmate COVID cases were reported. Yesterday, the number shot up to 3,761, a number not seen since January 21 of last year.

Yesterday’s number was 200% of the 21-day rolling average, the highest number recorded since the pandemic began.

Staff cases aren’t faring much better, up 141% in a week to 992 cases. COVID is now present in 127 facilities. Last week, the BOP reported two more inmate deaths, one at Beaumont and another at Lewisburg. The Lewisburg death occurred 11 months ago but only now has been recharacterized as COVID-related (a belated admission that either impresses you at the BOP’s candor or frightens you at the Bureau’s failure to properly identify the death at the time). However, the Beaumont death just occurred and – as with more than 55% of all deaths since March 1, 2021 – was the passing of someone whom the BOP had previously declared to be “recovered” from an earlier bout of COVID.

BOP vaccinations have slowed. Last week, 74,2% of inmates and 69.4% of staff had been vaccinated. Over the past month, those numbers rose 3.2% for inmates and 2.1% for staff, a slower rate than in November, when the monthly vax increase was 3.8% for inmates and 9.8% for staff.

A New York emergency room physician said last week that the current COVID omicron surge is different, both in who’s coming to the ER and how they’re being affected by the variant. “Like before, some [COVID patients] were really short of breath and needing oxygen. But for most, COVID seemed to topple a delicate balance of an underlying illness. It’s making people really sick in a different way.”

deadcovid210914Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported Saturday that a new COVID variant being called “deltacron” has been identified in Cyprus. According to Leondios Kostrikis, a University of Cyprus professor and director of the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology, said, “There are currently omicron and delta co-infections and we found this strain to be a combination of the two,” Kostrikis said in an interview with Sigma TV on Friday. “We will see in the future if this strain is more pathological or contagious or if it will prevail” over delta and omicron, he said.

As of yesterday, however, an Imperial College (UK) scientist cast doubt on the Cypriot report, saying “the so-called ‘Deltacron’ variant that was discovered on the island of Cyprus ‘looks to be quite clearly contamination’,” according to French news and current affairs public radio station RFI.

The BOP filed a motion last week to dissolve the preliminary injunction issued against FCC Lompoc in the class-action lawsuit over its management of the COVID pandemic. That injunction issued July 14, 2020, identifying inmates vulnerable to COVID and beginning the process of release to CARES Act home confinement. Citing the Prison Litigation Reform Act and a December 10th 9th Circuit decision in another case, Ahlman v. Barnes, the government is arguing that the PLRA automatically dissolves injunctions issued against prisons after 90 days.

The District Court has ordered briefing on the issue.

Questions about the BOP’s management of the virus at FCI Danbury may be heating up again. Danbury was the focus of the first successful class-action suit, Martinez v. Brooks, over BOP COVID management 18 months ago.

Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy (both D-CT) and Rep Jahana Hayes (D-CT) last week sent a letter to the Attorney General, BOP Director and acting FCI Danbury warden over “highly disturbing” reports on COVID at the facility. The letter alleges that over half of the women at FCI Danbury camp tested positive on Dec 27, but weren’t isolated or initially told whether they had the virus. “These actions, if true, are shockingly reckless and contrary to BOP and CDC guidelines,” the letter said, and “endanger not only the women at the Camp, but also staff and the surrounding communities.”

As of January 10th, 61 of the 86 women at the Camp had COVID.

Inmate families were protesting last week outside of FPC Alderson, alleging high COVID transmission and inmate mistreatment at the West Virginia women’s facility. Organizers said they hope to spark a movement for prison reform nationwide for access to healthcare and basic needs.

Allegations included that the prison suffered from a lack of food, feminine products, commissary items, and hot water. Paul Petruzzi, an attorney representing ten Alderson inmates suggested the facility was not using CARES Act home confinement authority, a complaint inmates have been making for the last year.

crazynumbers200519Finally, a media report about a COVID outbreak at FCI Ray Brook in upstate New York included a note of interest to people who have ever doubted the accuracy of BOP COVID numbers. The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reported last week that last year, Ray Brook “had a COVID-19 outbreak which peaked at 130 inmates and 25 staff testing positive at one time. These numbers were only discovered weeks after the fact, when the corrections officer union for FCI Ray Brook – AFGE CPL33, Local 3882 – raised concerns that the BOP was not publicly reporting all of its COVID-19 data at the facility.”

Beaumont Enterprise, Third COVID-recovered senior inmate dies at Beaumont federal prison (January 5, 2022)

WNBC-TV, Omicron Variant Symptoms: Latest COVID ‘Making People Really Sick in a Different Way’ (January 4, 2022)

Bloomberg, Cyprus identifies ‘deltacron’, a variant that combines delta and omicron (January 8, 2022)

Santa Maria Times, Motion to dissolve federal prison COVID-19 injunction continued (January 4, 2022)

Adirondack Daily Enterprise, 40 inmates at FCI Ray Brook test positive for COVID-19 (January 8, 2022)

Martinez-Brooks v. Easter, 459 F. Supp.3d 411 (D. Conn. 2020)

WVNS-TV, Relatives of Alderson Federal Prison inmates allege mistreatment at peaceful protest (January 5, 2022)

News Times, Investigation into Danbury prison COVID conditions called for by delegation: ‘Shockingly reckless’ (January 4, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root

COVID Deja Vu… All Over Again – Update for January 4, 2022

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

JANUARY 2022’S KIND OF LIKE JANUARY 2021

deadcovid210914A year ago, the Bureau of Prisons was in the grip of a major COVID outbreak. How major? Back on New Year’s Day 2020, there were 6,831 sick inmates and 1,750 sick staff.

Things aren’t quite that bad right now, but as of last night, the number of sick inmates had increased 425% over the past two weeks, from 289 on December 20 to 1,516 currently. Sick staff increased 110% from 243 to 511. COVID is present at 94% of BOP facilities.

The percentage of vaccinated inmates inched up last week a half a point to 73.8%. Staff vaxxes still lag, up only 3/10th of a point to 69.1%.

Meanwhile, the nation is a hot mess. Last year, the country had 231,000 cases on New Year’s Day. Yesterday, there were 444,000.

A Fort Worth Star-Telegram story last Thursday reported on a December 16th FMC Fort Worth COVID death. The story noted that the inmate “is the 16th man to die from COVID-19 at FMC Fort Worth, according to BOP data. At the prison, ten incarcerated men and seven BOP staffers had confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Thursday… People incarcerated in prisons are at least 4.77 times more likely to be infected with COVID-19 than the general population, according to the Federal Public Community Defenders. At the federal women’s prison in Fort Worth, FMC Carswell, 70 women tested positive for COVID-19 as of Thursday and 22 BOP staff members had the virus. According to BOP data, FMC Carswell, — which is also a federal medical facility — had the 6th highest number of cases of all BOP facilities as of Thursday.”

Vaccinesticker211005In Connecticut, a female inmate at FCI Danbury has sued the BOP alleging that she was wrongly passed over for CARES Act home confinement because she cannot safely be vaccinated against COVID-19. 

Monique Brady, 46, contends in her December 16, 2021, complaint filed that she was wrongly passed over for home confinement even though she has underlying medical conditions that make her vulnerable to the disease. According to filings in Whitted v. Easter, the class-action litigation against FCI Danbury over COVID at the institution, which was settled largely in the inmates’ favor, Brady received one dose of vaccine but not the second. The institution’s medical staff advised her not to receive a second shot due to her reaction to the first one.

The BOP has previously told the Whitted v. Easter court that it would not consider home confinement for inmates who did not get fully vaccinated.

Brady claims she is at risk for COVID due to her taking prescribed steroids for a medical condition, obesity, a history of smoking, and high blood pressure. She asks the district court to issue an order that she be placed on CARES Act home confinement.
 

miracle181227The BOP continues to declare inmates recovered under its very liberal reading of CDC guidelines. Reality is not as forgiving. A research paper released last week reported that “Covid-19 can spread within days from the airways to the heart, brain and almost every organ system in the body, where it may persist for months.” In what Bloomberg described as the most comprehensive analysis to date of the SARS-CoV-2 virus’s distribution and persistence in the body and brain, scientists at the National Institutes of Health said they found the pathogen is capable of replicating in human cells well beyond the respiratory tract.”

The report pointed to delayed viral clearance as a potential contributor to the persistent symptoms wracking so-called long-haul COVID sufferers.

Ft Worth Star-Telegram, Man is 16th to die from COVID-19 at Fort Worth prison; cases spike at women’s facility (December 30, 2021)

Connecticut Insider, Lawsuit: Unvaccinated woman convicted in $10M Ponzi scheme a ‘sitting duck’ for COVID at CT prison (January 3, 2022)

Bloomberg, Coronavirus Can Persist for Months After Traversing Body (December 26, 2021)

Daniel Chertow, et al., SARS-CoV-2 infection and persistence throughout the human body and brain (Nat’l Institutes of Health, December 20, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

Director Says BOP “Has A Sound Pandemic Plan In Place…” As COVID-19 Spirals Out of Control – Update for December 14, 2020

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

COURT ORDERS BOP TO HONOR SETTLEMENT, WHILE INMATE COVID CASES INCREASE 30% IN ONE WEEK

Ten days ago, the number of Bureau of Prisons inmate COVID-19 cases passed 5,000. That was a first… but it was nothing compared to last week.

As of last Friday, the BOP reported 7,278 ill inmates (a 30% from the week before),1,716 sick staff (up 9% from last week), COVID-19 in 127 BOP facilities and 167 dead inmates. The BOP has tested 58% of all inmates at least once, with the positivity rate continuing to ratchet up. As of last Friday, 34% of all inmate tests are positive for COVID.

BOPCOVID201214

Recall that on December 2, BOP Director Michael Carvajal told a House Subcommittee that the BOP’s COVID-19 “procedures have proven effective as this is evidenced by the steep decline in our inmate hospitalizations, inmates on ventilators and deaths.” Some feel differently.

Last Friday, a Connecticut U.S. District Court found that the BOP had violated its settlement agreement in a class action of 450 medically vulnerable prisoners brought last spring over COVID-19 conditions at FCI Danbury. The unhappy judge ordered the BOP to release 17 medically vulnerable inmates by 5 p.m. the next day (a Saturday), prohibited the BOP from relying on administrative roadblocks to delay the release of those granted home confinement, and directed the BOP to report to the plaintiffs’ attorneys whenever the agency expects to fail to release inmates granted CARES Act home confinement within 14 days of grant.

The court order followed a long hearing the day before, where the court heard about a new Danbury COVID-19 outbreak and the BOP’s corresponding failure to mitigate the spread of the disease. In one week, the number of Danbury COVID-19 cases went from zero to nearly 50. The plaintiffs said despite the BOP’s promise to check daily for symptoms for the duration of the pandemic, the BOP failed to follow this pledge for two weeks during a surge of the disease around the country.

A July settlement of the lawsuit required the BOP to promptly identify prisoners who are low security risks and have a greater chance of developing serious complications from the virus and release them to home confinement. The settlement called for prisoners to be released within 14 days of being approved. But the plaintiffs’ lawyers say some of them have been waiting nearly three months to be released after being approved for home confinement.

whoyabelieve201214The BOP cited several reasons for the delays in releasing the inmates, including required 14-day quarantines due to the virus and BOP guidelines in releasing inmates to the community. The Court was not impressed.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, the ACLU last week filed suit alleging the BOP’s FCI Waseca has “failed to respond in any meaningful way to the pandemic.” The ACLU says the prison did not release medically vulnerable people from the prison, where two out of three inmates contracted COVID-19, making social distancing impossible.

New Jersey congressional leaders last week renewed their call to end inmate transfers to FCI Fort Dix. Led by Senators Robert Menendez and Cory Booker (both D-New Jersey), the state’s congressional delegation sent a second letter to BOP Director Carvajal week calling for the end of inmate transfers and asking the BOP to outline its plan for allocating and administering the COVID vaccine.

The BOP had previously instituted a moratorium on all inmate transfers to Ft Dix through Nov. 23 as active cases hit 300. The lawmakers and BOP staff have pointed to the October transfer of inmates from FCI Elkton to Ft Dix as the cause of the outbreak. BOP officials have denied the accusation. The moratorium was not extended, the BOP said last week, despite a previous letter from the state’s lawmakers demanding the moratorium continue until there are no active cases at the prison.

“By resuming transfers of incarcerated individuals into and out of the facility in the midst of a severe outbreak, BOP is putting at risk the lives of both staff and incarcerated individuals,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter.

COVIDheart200720The BOP is seeing a resurgence of COVID at institutions where it had previously been controlled. The virus is again at FCC Lompoc, site of one of the worst prison COVID outbreaks in the country, according to the Santa Barbara Independent. An investigation last summer by the Dept. of Justice Inspector General found that the BOP’s initial response to COVID “failed on a number of fronts and likely contributed to the severity of the outbreak, including staffing shortages, inadequate screenings, and a scarcity of protective equipment.”

As of Friday, Englewood and Loretto each have more than 600 sick inmates, Texarkana and Pekin more than 300 each, five more facilities with more than 200, and 12 more BOP institutions with over 100 active COVID cases.

When a local newspaper asked the BOP about Loretto, a spokesman said the prisons are following accepted guidelines. While declining to address the Loretto situation “due to privacy, safety and security reasons,” the spokesman told the paper, “we can tell you all institutions have areas set aside for quarantine and medical isolation.”

Meanwhile, The New York Times last week criticized the BOP for its management of COVID at FDC Brooklyn. Noting that 55 inmates had tested positive for COVID-19, The Times said, “many months into this pandemic, the Federal Defenders of New York, a legal advocacy group, said officials at the jail aren’t following basic public health guidelines to prevent the spread of the virus, to care for sick inmates or to protect those who are most vulnerable. The reports… are disturbing. Corrections officers, they say, aren’t properly wearing masks, including while interacting with inmates. Sick inmates aren’t receiving proper medical attention and are being placed in cells with healthy individuals. One person incarcerated at the facility told an attorney with the Federal Defenders that severely ill inmates who asked for medical attention didn’t get it.”

A BOP spokesman disputed the Defenders’ claims. Nevertheless, the Times said, “if the conditions are anything like what the Federal Defenders describe, they are an affront to human dignity and a threat to the public health of Americans in and out of the Brooklyn facility.”

lies170310And here’s an interesting glimpse at the BOP’s record-keeping, a factoid that could suggest to reasonable people that the BOP’s numbers cannot necessarily be trusted. A Youngstown, Ohio, news website, reporting on Columbiana County, Ohio, COVID numbers, was trying to derive a number of people recovered from the virus. It noted that FCI Elkton – located in the county – reported “896 incarcerated people and 54 employees had recovered from COVID-19 as of today… That number has declined in recent weeks, suggesting the bureau removes cases from its total when people are transferred out of the prison.”

Yale University Law School, CJAC Wins Speedy Release of Medically Vulnerable Individuals from Federal Prison in Danbury (December 12, 2020)

Order, Whitted v Easter, Case No 3:20-cv-00569 (D. Conn, December 11, 2020)

WWLP-TV, Judge orders release of 17 virus-vulnerable federal inmates (December 12, 2020)

KMSP-TV, ACLU sues federal prison in Waseca, Minn. after 67% of inmates test positive for COVID-19 (December 10, 2020)

Burlington County Times, More NJ lawmakers renew call for end to inmate transfers at FCI Fort Dix (December 10, 2020)

Johnstown Tribune-Democrat, Feds: Loretto prison following guidelines (December 11, 2020)

Mahoning Matters, Columbiana County reports 244 new COVID-19 cases, 2 new deaths (December 11, 2020)

New York Times, Stop the Coronavirus Outbreak at Brooklyn’s Federal Jail (December 8, 2020)

– Thomas L. Root

BOP Settles Connecticut Inmate COVID Class Action – Update for August 3, 2020

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

MIRACLE MATH AND A CONNECTICUT COVID-19 SETTLEMENT

If you can’t heal’ em with healthcare, then mend ‘em with math.

wonders200803The Bureau of Prisons just completed a week that was nothing short of miraculous. With nearly 4,500 sick inmates only eight days ago, the BOP reported only 2,426 active cases of COVID-19 last night (101 of which are federal prisoners in private joints). To find any comparable medical miracle, you’d have to go back to the Bible.

The numbers have nothing to do with inmates actually beating coronavirus (although some certainly have done so). Instead, it’s purely arithmetic. The CDC COVID-19 guidelines for prisons directs that people with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection be put into medical isolation “to prevent their contact with others and to reduce the risk of transmission.” Medical isolation is to end when the inmate meets pre-established testing criteria for release from isolation. The criteria include that “least 10 days have passed since symptom onset” and the inmate has no other symptoms.

The BOP appears to be following the 10-day standard, which is letting it write hundreds of inmates off the “infected” list every day, even in the face of other numbers that should give BOP officials pause. Inmate deaths reached 110 this week (105 in the BOP, five federal inmates in private prisons), with two inmates dying in Texas and three in Florida. (The BOP has added a note on its webpage that four of the deaths occurred while the inmates were on home confinement, which a reasonable person might think was a technique for deflecting blame – you know, the ‘see, we’re not killing them as fast as CARES Act release is’ kind of thing).

COVID-19 numbers200803

In the last month, the number of BOP employees with COVID-19 has quadrupled, with the number last night standing at 503. Given there have been no family visits or inmate transfers for 120 days or better, BOP staff people coming and going are the last vector standing.

The virus is still active in 106 facilities, 86% of all BOP prisons. As FCI Beaumont proved in June, it’s possible to go from eight  COVID-19 cases to 463 in a little more than a month. Now, it seems it may be USP Lewisburg’s turn (see below).  

COVIDfacilities200803

Notably, after the number of BOP inmates with the virus fell for every day in the past week – in the last three days by double digits – the decline stopped, and the numbers inched up by a percentage point, last night.

In COVID-19 legal news, inmates claiming that conditions of confinement at FCI Danbury put them at risk of COVID-19 settled last week after prison officials agreed to an enhanced review process to evaluate prisoners for CARES Act home confinement. The inmates sued in late April when FCI Danbury was among the hardest hit BOP facilities. By early May, about 60 inmates and 50 staff members had contracted the disease and one inmate has died.

The settlement requires the prison to continue with a rigorous process that ranks inmates by their susceptibility to infection and associated health risks and identifies candidates for various forms of early release. Shortly after the case was filed, US District Judge Michael P. Shea accused the prison administration of failing to comply quickly with guidelines issued by the Dept. of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for evaluation and possible release of inmates.

release161117Attorney David Golub, whose law firm represented the inmates pro bono, told the Hartford Courant, “What he basically said to them was, ‘You have to identify the people who are medically vulnerable, you have to identify them right way and you have to make reasoned decision about whether to release to home confinement or not.’ And he monitored them,” said .

The parties will file a joint motion to certify the settlement class today.

I reported last week about the DOJ Inspector General’s report on FCC Lompoc, California, which included that the BOP’s use of CARES Act home confinement authority “was extremely limited.” This week, the Lompoc administration responded that “these findings must be placed in context, as these were unique circumstances where the BOP, along with the rest of the country, was learning about how to treat and manage this novel virus. The mitigation of COVID-19 in all of our facilities, including FCC Lompoc, has been and remains our highest priority.”

The IG report found that the BOP had identified 509 Lompoc inmates who qualified for CARES Act release, but had release only eight of them. Since the Report and a July 14 court order in the class-action suit brought by Lompoc inmates against the institution, the BOP has sent 72 CARES Act home confinement recommendations to a review committee, while an additional 655 applications have yet to be looked at.

covidtest200420In Pennsylvania, USP Lewisburg – long COVID-19 free – has begun testing inmates after finding a case of the virus last Thursday. As of last night, 35 inmates have tested positive. All cases are at the institution’s penitentiary, not the camp. A BOP spokesman told local media that testing should increase the number of COVID cases there.

As of last night, the BOP had completed 41,000 tests, which – if every inmate got only one test – would cover 26% of all inmates. A full 28% have tested positive.

CDC, Interim Guidance on Management of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Correctional and Detention Facilities (July 22)

CDC, Discontinuation of Isolation for Persons with COVID-19 Not in Healthcare Settings (July 22)

Hartford Courant, Danbury prison inmates settle with Bureau of Prisons in suit over COVID threat (July 27)

Whitted v Easter, Case No. 3:20cv569 (D.Conn.)

Santa Maria, California, Sun, Court order, federal inspection agree with class-action lawsuit’s claims that Lompoc penitentiary could have better stopped the spread of COVID-19 with more home confinement (July 29)

Order, Torres v. Milusnic, Case No. 20cv4550 (CD Cal., July 14, 2020)

Lompoc, California, Record, Officials defend methods used in Lompoc prison’s response to COVID-19 (July 28)

Sunbury, Pennsylvania Daily Item, Federal Bureau of Prisons reports 35 inmates tested positive for virus at USP Lewisburg (Aug. 1)

– Thomas L. Root

‘Everything’s Great, Nothing to See Here, Folks,’ in BOP COVID-19 Response – Update for June 3, 2020

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

WHACK-A-MOLE

The BOP, in the new “normal” for COVID-19, is playing “whack-a-mole” with fresh coronavirus outbreaks at facilities that had been COVID-19 free a few weeks ago, as well as increasing illness numbers at institutions that had seemed to be on the mend, The number of inmate COVID-19 cases last night (1,954) is up about 8 percent from a week ago (1,813). Inmate deaths increased from 65 a week ago to 73. But ominously, the number of BOP facilities with COVID-19 cases hit 59 yesterday, an all-time high (and up from 53 a week ago).

whack200602

New COVID-19 breakouts were reported for FCI Talladega and FMC Devens, to note two facilities. Both had reported infections a month before but were later cleared.

Perhaps more ominous, an FCI Terminal Island inmate died last week after the BOP had earlier said the man had recovered from the illness. Adrian Solarzano tested positive for the virus on April 16 and was placed in isolation. The Los Angeles Times said the BOP deemed him “recovered” on May 10 after he no longer showed symptoms. But five days later — on May 15 — Solarzano was admitted to a hospital after complaining of chest pain and anxiety. He was tested twice for COVID-19, and authorities said both results were negative. But his condition worsened, and he was pronounced dead by hospital staff Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Anchorage Daily News reported that an Alaska man granted compassionate release from FCI Terminal Island, which still has 32 inmates and four staff ill, tested positive one day before his release. The BOP put him on a commercial flight to Anchorage, without ever telling him he had the virus.

fail200526The inmate’s lawyer says a chain of misfires allowed the BOP to swab the inmate for testing on May 5, get positive-for-the-virus lab results on May 7, and release him to fly home commercially on May 8. “There are so many institutional failures you can identify in this,” said Daniel Poulson, a federal public defender who represented the inmate on his compassionate release motion.

A class action lawsuit – looking a lot like successful suits brought in Connecticut about FCI Danbury and Ohio on FCI Elkton – was filed May 26 on behalf of the inmates at the several prisons that are part of the Butner, North Carolina, complex. The suit, Hallanan v. Scarantino, was brought by prisoners represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and the law firm of Winston & Strawn.

The action seeks an injunction ordering Butner to release or transfer vulnerable prisoners, and alleges that Butner officials “have not taken the necessary steps to address the risk faced by the people in their custody. They have opposed motions for compassionate release, and they have failed to order furloughs or transfers to home confinement with sufficient speed and in sufficient numbers. They have failed to make other arrangements within the facility to allow for adequate physical distancing. And they have failed to implement effective isolation, quarantine, testing, screening, hygiene, and disinfecting policies or meaningfully modify movement protocols for staff and incarcerated people.”

Meanwhile, the Intercept reported last week that while BOP’s COVID-19 numbers included 230 halfway house residents at 42 RRCs, it “is clear is that the real number of residents with Covid-19 in federal halfway houses is higher than what appears on the BOP website.” The Crime Report reported that because some halfway houses receive a per diem rate based on the daily population at a given facility, the contractors “have an incentive to keep halfway houses as full as possible. Critics blame such financial incentives for a reluctance to send more people home during the pandemic.”

huckster200603But despite all of the foregoing, everything in the BOP is hunky-dory. Just ask BOP Director Michael Carvajal, who yesterday testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that

In total, from March 1, 2020, the date of the beginning of the national emergency proclaimed by President Trump, until today, 5,323 inmates total have tested positive for COVID- 19 and to-date, 3,784 have recovered. More than 80 percent of infected individuals have not become significantly ill. The number of hospitalized inmates – those who became significantly ill – is currently only 83 in total. And in fact, the number hospitalized is on a significant downward trajectory (see attached), suggesting that our attempts to mitigate the transmission of the virus is effective.

(I added the bold-face for emphasis). The attached graph:

BOPgraph200603

But the fact that 80% of the inmates have not become significantly ill suggests very little (other than good fortune). More telling is that so far, only 10% of the inmate population has been tested for COVID-19.  At the same time, the number of BOP facilities at which the virus is present keeps climbing:BOPJointsCOVID200603

The only certainty is that while the BOP bungles at institutions like Oakdale, Elkton, Danbury, Butner, Fort Worth and Terminal Island go on, the Director and his PR machine will continue to publicly proclaim, “In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bureau has taken, and will continue to take, aggressive steps to protect the safety and security of all staff and inmates, as well as members of the public.”

A parenthetic note: It is doubtful that the BOP’s Medical Director installed much confidence in the members of the Judiciary Committee at yesterday’s hearing. During his testimony, according to Associated Press reporter Mike Balsamo, he wore his face mask incorrectly:

BOPMeddir200603

Oops.

The Intercept, As Coronavirus Spreads in Federal Prisons, Cases in Halfway Houses are Being Undercounted (May 28)

The Crime Report, Halfway Houses Called Another Vector for Coronavirus (May 28)

Anchorage Daily News, He tested positive for the coronavirus. One day later, a federal prison flew him home to Alaska (May 26)

Huff Post, Inside A Federal Prison With A Deadly COVID-19 Outbreak, Compromised Men Beg For Help (May 26)

Hallanan v. Scarantino, Case No. 20-HC-2088 (E.D.N.C., filed May 26, 2020)

– Thomas L. Root

No Pants, Sneaky Releases and Weird Numbers – Update for May 19, 2020

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We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

JUDGE DEPANTS BOP CARES ACT EFFORTS, WHILE TRUMP BUDDY JUMPS HOME CONFINEMENT LINE

Last week’s top three developments in the BOP’s response to the coronavirus pandemic were a federal court’s grant of a preliminary injunction against FCI Danbury, the CARES Act release to home confinement of President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and the BOP’s unusual COVID-19 inmate numbers.

depants200519In Connecticut, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction ordering the FCI Danbury warden to promptly identify inmates with COVID-19 risk conditions and to begin aggressively evaluating requests by prisoners for transfer to home confinement or compassionate release. The judge ruled that the FCI Danbury administration had failed to carry out Attorney General William Barr’s April 3 memo ordering the BOP to “maximize” emergency authority granted by the March 28 CARES Act to release inmates to home confinement.

The Danbury inmates — men and woman confined at three facilities within the complex — complained in the lawsuit that the institution was intentionally dragging its feet on compliance with Barr’s memo. The inmates argued — and the court agreed — that prisoner releases or transfers are necessary to decrease congestion and permit adequate social distancing within the institution.

The order gives the Danbury warden less than two weeks to provide him with a list of inmates eligible for transfer to home confinement. In the case of the ineligible inmates, the judge ordered the prison to provide explanations. While the judge did not grant a preliminary injunction on inmate requests for mass transfer of inmates to other institutions or home confinement, and for appointment of a special master to enforce virus mitigation measures in the prison, but he ordered an expedited hearing schedule to take up the questions.

The 74-page order blasts Danbury’s chary use of CARES Act authority and compassionate release. In the suit, the BOP admitted that since March 19, FCI Danbury staff received 241 requests for compassionate release. Of these, 136 had been denied, 18 were returned to the inmate for further information, and 87 were still awaiting review. The court observed that

the figures make clear that the FCI Danbury staff has, to date, not granted a single request for compassionate release—a batting average that is dramatically less favorable to inmates than the frequency with which courts in this District are granting Section 3582 motions… This suggests that the Warden is setting an impossible high bar for these requests. Alternatively, it suggest that the Warden has not set a new standard for compassionate release in light of the pandemic, but is applying an obsolete one that takes no account of the risk of illness or death to medically vulnerable inmates from COVID-19.

Danbury’s use of CARES Act authority fared no better. “In spite of the explicit statutory authorization in the CARES Act to make widespread use of home confinement in response to the threat posed by COVID-19, and the exhortations of the head of the government department in which the Bureau of Prison sits,” the Court wrote, “the implementation of this directive at FCI Danbury has been slow and inflexible.” Noting the Warden’s admission that only 159 inmates have been reviewed and a mere 21 inmates actually been placed on CARES Act home confinement, the Court said, “the criteria apparently being used by the Respondents to evaluate inmates for home confinement evidence a disregard for the seriousness of the health risk faced by vulnerable inmates…. In fact, the inmate bulletins make clear that those who have not served a specified percentage of their sentences are categorically disqualified: any inmate who has not served at least 50% of his or her sentence is deemed ineligible for home confinement, irrespective of vulnerability to COVID-19.”

Someone in the BOP must have read the Danbury order, because the very next morning, an inmate was sent to CARES Act home confinement who had only completed 25% of his sentence, and was not housed in a prison that had any COVID-19. Unfortunately for the BOP, the prisoner was named Paul Manafort.

linejump200519

Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, pled guilty in one federal case and was convicted after a trial in a second, and is about as high-profile as a federal prisoner can be. His release to home confinement in the predawn hours of last Wednesday spurred immediate denunciations of the unequal treatment of prisoners in a criminal justice system in which the wealthy and well-connected jump the line while millions of others are forced to face the spreading coronavirus pandemic with little or no hope of release.

The BOP explained that the agency “ha[s] wide discretion over who is granted home confinement,” the Des Moines Register reported. While there have been no reported cases of coronavirus at FCI Loretto, Manafort’s lawyers had previously argued that the “growing number of cases in Pennsylvania” meant it was “only a matter of time before the infection spreads to staff and inmates.” The attorneys said last month that high-risk inmates, such as their client, had to be removed from the prison before the virus arrived.

The Manafort home confinement is already being thrown in the face of U.S. Attorneys arguing against compassionate release on the grounds that the defendant has not served enough time, or that there is no coronavirus at the facility.

The BOP’s COVID-19 numbers took a puzzling dip last week. Following a tour of FCI Terminal Island Tuesday, Congresswoman Nanette Barragán, D-California, said the conditions inside the prison fall short of the federal government’s responsibility to protect inmates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Apparently Barragán’s complaints did not fall upon deaf ears. As of Monday night, FCI Terminal Island was reporting 693 inmates sick with coronavirus. As soon as Barragán completed her visit, Terminal Island’s sick inmate count fell to 150 inmates, a 79% decrease.

Huffpost reported that “a proactive testing and segregation strategy that Bureau of Prisons officials and the Los Angeles Department of Public Health implemented late last month has seemingly produced a rapid reduction in the cases. Faced with the health crisis, officials took dramatic steps ― a lockdown of the facility, mandated testing of all prisoners, and separating inmates by their COVID-19 status.”

The BOP told Huffpost that an “aggressive testing and quarantine mitigation strategy” has led to the recovery of more than 567 inmates have recovered, while 130 remain infected. Eight Terminal Island inmates died in the pandemic.

crazynumbers200519A week ago, the BOP reported 3,385 inmate COVID-19 cases, with 48 dead. As of last night, there are 2,402 inmate cases. Eight more federal inmates died in the last week, bringing the death toll to 57. More ominously, the number of institutions with reported COVID-19 has climbed from 51 to 54 as of Sunday (but fell to 49 last night), and staff coronavirus cases climbed from 250 a week ago to 284 as of Sunday, before taking a dive to 196 last night.

The numbers seem to move of their own volition. As Reuters pointed out yesterday, “federal prisons, which typically limit testing to inmates with obvious symptoms, reported confirmed infections in fewer than 4,200 of their total inmate population of about 150,000, with 52 deaths.” As this blog has noted before, if you don’t test, you can’t count.

Rather crazy, but hardly reliable.

Long Beach, California, Post, Terminal Island is failing to protect inmates from COVID-19, congresswoman says after tour (May 13)

Hartford Courant, U.S. Judge backs prison inmates in Danbury on COVID-19 suit, orders warden to move fast on requests for release (May 12)

Martinez-Brooks v. Easter, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83300 (D.Conn. May 12, 2020)

Common Dreams, ‘Manafort Released. But [Insert Name] Still Locked Up’: Special Treatment for Trump Crony Denounced (May 13)

Des Moines Register, Ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort released from prison amid coronavirus pandemic (May 13)

Daily Beast, Paul Manafort’s Prison Had No Coronavirus Cases. He Was Released Anyway. (May 13)

Huffpost, Lockdown At Terminal Island Federal Prison Curbs Deadly Coronavirus Outbreak (May 15)

– Thomas L. Root