Every WA state prisoner should get a COVID-19 vaccine immediately, lawsuit demands
A lawsuit filed this week seeks immediate COVID-19 vaccine availability for everyone living in Washington state’s correctional facilities.
“The infection rate for people in prisons in Washington State is nearly 8.5 times greater than the general population,” the nonprofit Columbia Legal Services said in a press release about the lawsuit Tuesday. “Prioritizing access to the vaccine for the approximately 15,000 people in these facilities should not be politicized.”
Three people incarcerated in Washington prisons, including someone at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor, filed the lawsuit Monday in Thurston County Superior Court. They are seeking certification of their petition as a class action, with the class being everyone in the state Department of Correction’s custody.
The lawsuit asks the court to order immediate vaccine access for everyone living in DOC custody who wants it, a plan for vaccine outreach and education in prisons, and that DOC staff who refuse the vaccine be prohibited from contacting those in custody. The plaintiff’s allege DOC and the state Department of Health’s failure to do those things amounts to cruel punishment and has violated prisoners’ constitutional rights.
DOC said in a statement Tuesday that it “will continue to follow the state Department of Health’s (DOH) published vaccine phase schedule. Corrections publishes vaccination administration information by facility as well as total vaccines given on the department’s website.“
The statement goes on to say: “The DOH published vaccine schedule for March 31 and forward includes all incarcerated individuals and staff in corrections facilities, based upon supply of the vaccine received. It is important to note that Corrections provides the vaccine, but acceptance of the vaccine is an individual choice.”
The lawsuit argues that eligibility doesn’t mean those in prison will actually get the vaccine.
“Just because people in prison may be eligible for the vaccine on a certain date, does not mean that the appropriate number of doses will be allocated to them on that date, or even in a timely manner thereafter,” it said. “More importantly, DOC has not offered a detailed plan or timeline for when people in prison will actually be able to receive the vaccine, and instead only reiterates that people in prison are estimated to be eligible beginning March 31, 2021.”
DOC’s website as of Tuesday said vaccine was being offered to 1A and 1B1 priority groups, which applies to “any DOC employee or incarcerated individual working in a setting where care is being provided to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients and close contact with them is possible,” and to “all DOC employees and incarcerated individuals aged 65 or older regardless of job duties or location.”
DOH said in a statement that it “has worked to support correctional, jail and detention facilities and partners throughout the pandemic. These extensive efforts at the federal, state and local level have included disease control, isolation and quarantine, outbreak response, vaccine planning and more. We want to ensure settings with a higher risk for COVID-19 are covered in vaccine prioritization, which is why we included correctional, jail and detention facilities with other congregate living settings in the groups that have recently become or are about to become eligible.”
The lawsuit argues the state should have vaccinated everyone in its prisons who wants the vaccine before now, and that it could have done so without significantly limiting access for other eligible groups.
“To date, the state has given over 3,000,000 COVID vaccinations, but has refused to give the vast majority of the 15,000 people living in our prisons a single one,” the lawsuit said. “As a result of Defendants’ unwillingness to take this simple step, thousands of people remain at serious risk of contracting COVID.”
The nonprofit filed a letter it received this month from the Secretary of Health and Secretary of the Department of Corrections. It said in part that the state has been working to provide individuals who are incarcerated with information about the vaccine and to keep infection control protocols up-to-date.
“Unfortunately, because of limited vaccine supply to date, there has not been enough to offer it to everyone and we have had to make difficult decisions about who to offer the vaccine to first,” the letter said. “Our approach to vaccine prioritization focuses first on protecting people most impacted by COVID-19, as this is what has been keeping Washington in an emergency state.”
‘Like other congregate environments’
DOC’s measures to prevent COVID outbreaks have been ineffective, the plaintiffs allege.
“Early in the pandemic public health experts, community members and others pleaded with DOC and other state officials to reduce the number of people in DOC custody as the only potentially effective means of reducing the likelihood of mass infections,” the lawsuit said. “Unfortunately, only a small number of people in custody were released which proved ineffective at controlling the spread of COVID in state correctional facilities.”
An emergency proclamation and commutation order from the governor authorized the early release of about 1,100 people convicted of non-violent crimes.
Last year Columbia Legal Services filed a lawsuit that sought the release of people over the age of 50, those with underlying medical conditions and those with release dates within 18 months. The Washington State Supreme Court dismissed the petition 5-4.
Nearly 6,200 people in DOC custody and 1,149 staff members have tested positive, and 14 people in prison and two staff members have died, the lawsuit said.
The nonprofit’s press release said: “In addition to the nearly 6,200 residents who have contracted the virus, people in DOC custody have been subjected to abhorrent conditions as a result of the Department’s COVID-19 response, including facility-wide lockdowns, the extensive use of solitary confinement, limited access to toilets and showers, restricted contact with family and loved ones, and placement of residents in decommissioned buildings without access to drinking water or ventilation.”
There have been 1,671 cases at Airway Heights Corrections Center, 400 cases at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center, 281 cases at Larch Corrections Center, 551 cases at Monroe Correctional Complex, 1,204 cases at Stafford Creek Corrections Center, 976 cases at Washington Corrections Center, and 985 cases at the Washington State Penitentiary, the lawsuit said.
Across the United States more than 396,000 people in prison and 96,000 staff have tested positive, and 2,435 in custody and 159 staff have died, the lawsuit said.
“While refusing to give people in prison access to the vaccine, Defendants have also permitted correctional staff who have been offered but refused the vaccine to have continued direct face-to-face contact with people living in our prisons – the precise means by which COVID has entered Washington’s prisons in the past,” the lawsuit alleges.
The state needs an outreach and education plan for those in custody that is culturally responsive, the plaintiffs say.
“Throughout our nation’s history, BIPOC (Black/Indigenous/People of Color) communities have been the targets of unwanted, nonconsensual research, testing, and treatment by the medical community,” the lawsuit said. “This legacy has led to a deeply seated wariness by many BIPOC individuals of systems of medical research and care. Furthermore, for many individuals in DOC custody, there is a pervasive distrust of the medical care provided to them by DOC. Thus, for BIPOC people in prison, these intersecting fears are often compounded.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
