Michigan Inmates Get Sanitary Upgrades, Testing in Covid-19 Suit

A Michigan jail must bolster its coronavirus countermeasures after five inmates convinced a federal judge Thursday to grant an injunction in a lawsuit alleging that the jail and its officials acted with deliberate indifference toward the risks the pandemic poses to incarcerated people.

Inmates Jamaal Cameron, Richard Briggs, Raj Lee, Michael Cameron, and Matthew Saunders filed a combined proposed class action under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 on April 17. They sought to represent a class of all current and future detainees at the Oakland County Jail, as well as three separate subclasses.

Judge Linda V. Parker certified their class and issued a preliminary injunction against Oakland County for hygiene improvements, increased testing, and the possible release of members of the medically vulnerable subclass.

The plaintiffs showed a “substantial likelihood that Defendants are being deliberately indifferent to the risk,” especially regarding medically vulnerable inmates, the court said. If injunctive relief isn’t granted, the judge said, the plaintiffs would also suffer immediate irreparable injury.

“The Court finds that the relief it is ordering is narrowly drawn, is the least intrusive means, and extends no further than necessary to correct the harm that the Court finds requires preliminary relief,” Parker wrote in the opinion. “The Court has given substantial weight to any adverse impact on public safety and the operation of the criminal justice system caused by the preliminary relief and shall respect the principles of comity in tailoring this preliminary relief.”

Under the preliminary injunction that was granted, the county is required to provide each incarcerated person with two bars of individual hand soap and a hand towel on a bi-weekly basis, as well as other cleaning supplies and disinfectant products.

The order stops short of requiring the release of medically vulnerable inmates, instead ordering a list of those inmates, according to an order issued alongside the opinion.

The injunctive provisions are set to expire 45 days from the order, with a review to determine whether an extension would be necessary scheduled to take place at that time.

Parker also rejected a motion to dismiss the lawsuit but granted it for two individually named defendants.

The county has already filed an appeal.

Plaintiffs are represented by Advancement Project National Office, Pitt, McGehee, Palmer, Bonanni & Rivers PC, American Civil Liberties Union Fund of Michigan, LaRene & Kriger PLC, and Civil Rights Corps. The county is represented by Potter DeAgostino O’Dea & Patterson.

The case is Cameron v. Bouchard, E.D. Mich., No. 2:20-cv-10949-LVP-MJH, 5/21/20.