ACLU, inmates say Moose Lake prison is unsafe (updated)

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a petition against the state Department of Corrections April 15 to keep prisoners and staff at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Moose Lake safe from the rapidly spreading COVID-19.

Filed on behalf of three inmates — Roger Foster, Kristopher Mehle and Adam Dennis Sanborn — and “all other similarly situated,” the petition asks for the release of the three prisoners and others in a similar situation to a safe location during COVID-19 pandemic because the state has failed to take reasonable measures to protect them.

“The ACLU of Minnesota is suing because the prison and DOC have failed to perform their legal and moral duty to keep the people in their custody safe,” said ACLU-MN staff attorney Dan Shulman in a press release. “Prisoners tell us that people are jammed into cells with others who have symptoms of COVID-19, and the prison refuses to perform adequate testing. The prison and DOC have failed to take even rudimentary measures to prevent and stop the spread of COVID-19 at Moose Lake, endangering inmates, staff and the surrounding communities. Detention should not mean a death sentence.”

The three plaintiffs listed in the petition are either near the end of their sentences or at high risk if they catch COVID-19. Foster and Mehle have release dates within 180 days or less, and potential employment awaiting them. Foster has been showing COVID-19 symptoms since early April, but the prison has not tested him. Sanborn is a smoker with asthma, and is being held with people who have COVID-19 symptoms. All three have safe places to go after they’re released, according to the petition.

DOC spokesperson Nicholas Kimball previously explained to the Pine Knot News that the prison does not test inmates who are “presumed positive,” although there is no way to know if Sanborn and his cellmates are among them.

“We follow MDH protocol for how testing is conducted,” Kimball explained. “If a person has symptoms and is known to have had close contact to a person confirmed positive through testing, they are presumed positive, treated as positive with isolation and medical care provided, and not tested.”

The Department of Corrections agreed with the sentiment that “COVID-19 has created exceptional circumstances,” as noted in the court filing in its own press release last week.

“The agency continues efforts to implement early work and conditional medical release processes that fall within the parameters of current Minnesota law,” Minnesota Department of Corrections commissioner Paul Schnell said. “Our work continues to make adjustments to conform longstanding correctional practices with their emphasis on public safety to meet the compelling public health and fast moving challenges that result from COVID-19.”

While praising the state’s overall response to the pandemic, the lawsuit says the one blind spot in Minnesota’s leadership on the COVID-19 pandemic has been jails and prisons.

“In contrast to the speed with which Minnesota has followed public health officials’ other warnings, it has failed almost completely to act in any coordinated way to prevent COVID-19 from spreading rapidly through correctional facilities and overwhelming medical resources in nearby communities.”

The petition, describing the situation of each of the three individuals, claims that conditions at the medium-security Moose Lake prison are ripe for spreading disease.

According to the petition, the prison is still holding as many as eight men in a single cell, and permitting unrestricted access to showers, communal phones, vending machines and other facilities. According to Sanborn, in prison for felony DUI, staff advised him that because there is at least one person with COVID-19 in every unit of the prison, there will be no more testing for the virus. Additionally the petition claims that cleaning supplies, including soap and disinfectants, are in short supply, contrary to DOC statements over the past two weeks.

While the prisoners are the focus of the petition, it also points out that correctional staff are vulnerable, and staff movement will spread the virus back to a community, exacerbating the strain on the healthcare system “with potentially devastating effects.”

The ACLU-MN is asking the court to order the immediate release of these plaintiffs and those in similar situations to safe locations where they can socially isolate and get medical treatment if needed; to require DOC and the prison to perform their legal duty to keep all incarcerated individuals safe; and to appoint a special master to oversee the process.

In the wake of the petition, testing has increased at the prison.

The number of patients tested at Moose Lake almost doubled Wednesday, April 22, jumping from 24 to 45. At Willow River, the increase was even bigger, going from 10 to 51 people tested, according to the daily online DOC report.

UPDATE

On Friday, the number of inmates confirmed positive for COVID-19 reached 26 at Moose Lake prison and 40 at Willow River.

Also Friday, after this story was published in the Pine Knot News, the Minnesota Department of Corrections sent out an update about the DOC's latest plans for increased testing and early release options, both issues that were addressed in the lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of prisoners at Moose Lake.

Here are highlights from that press release:

COVID-19 work release

We are implementing a temporary policy to expedite release of certain inmates who are already within 90 days of their regularly-scheduled release date. It’s a simple expansion of Minnesota’s longstanding transitional work release program that will maintain community safety and better protect both staff and those who remain incarcerated.

Work release is an established process with a proven track record of ensuring community safety while helping people who have served time in prison to transition back to being good neighbors and productive members of the community.

We’re currently looking at these parameters:

· Within 90 days of their regularly scheduled release date.

· Rated a low or medium risk to re-offend.

· Have an approved place to live in a community-based facility or residence.

· Have access to a landline or have internet access with a camera-capable device at the approved release address.

Enhanced community-based supervision of “technical” release violators

In mid-March we revised our approach to release violations that do not involve allegations of new offenses. We have significantly reduced release revocations for technical violations of release, and are instead focusing on restructured community-based supervision as a response to technical violations.

COVID-19 related conditional medical release

In recognition of the grave health threat posed by COVID-19 for particular people with certain underlying conditions, we have created a new process through which certain adult inmates may apply for conditional medical release. The process is available for those who have a serious medical condition that puts them at higher risk of grave harm from COVID-19.

The commissioner of corrections has long had the authority to place adult inmates on conditional medical release before they have reached their supervised release date if they suffer from a grave medical condition and their release poses no threat to the public. Because COVID-19 presents a new threat to the health of people with particular medical conditions, adult inmates who previously would not have qualified for conditional medical release may qualify now if their underlying medical condition puts them at risk of grave harm from COVID-19. This process will temporarily replace existing DOC policy concerning medical releases related to COVID-19.