State NAACP Sues to Force the Release of Inmates Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

The state chapter of the NAACP—along with the state ACLU, Disability Rights North Carolina, four state prisoners, and the spouse of an inmate—filed a petition today asking the N.C. Supreme Court to issue what’s called a writ of mandamus, forcing the Department of Public Safety to develop a plan to release inmates who are 65 and older, have underlying medical conditions, or will either be released soon or have been approved for work release.

“Petitioners come to this Court in a time of unprecedented emergency,” the petitioners say. “In a matter of weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread at an alarming rate across the country, leaving thousands of deaths in its wake. Experts tell us the crisis has yet to hit its peak and emphasize that people who are incarcerated are in grave danger.”

To date, the petition says, the novel coronavirus has spread throughout at least six of the state’s 50 prisons, prompting the Division of Prisons to announce earlier this week that it would implement a two-week hold on accepting new prisoners—which, in turn, means county jails will have to hold inmates who are scheduled to be transferred to prison.

The state’s 35,000 adult inmates and 418 juveniles “live in close proximity and often unsanitary facilities,” the petition alleges. “They cannot engage in the social distancing that experts and the Governor have ordered the rest of us to undertake in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. When there is an outbreak, these individuals will be at the mercy of a prison system that is ill-equipped to handle a novel, deadly virus that has overwhelmed healthcare systems across the country.”

Read more: https://indyweek.com/news/northcarolina/state-naacp-sues-prison-covid-19/