COVID-19 Summary: This class action lawsuit was filed on June 16, 2020 by detainees in the Maricopa County Jail system in Arizona, who sought extra protections from COVID-19 and, in some cases, release. The Court denied the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction on August 14, 2020.
This is a lawsuit challenging the Maricopa County Sheriff's response to COVID-19 in its jails and requesting the release of detainees and prisoners. On June 16, 2020, nine named plaintiffs and the immigrants' rights non-profit Puente Human Rights Movement filed this class action law suit and habeas petition in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. The plaintiffs sued Maricopa County and its Sheriff under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (42 U.S.C. § 12131), and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. § 794) and petitioned the court for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. Represented by the national and Arizona ACLUs, as well as several law firms working pro bono, the plaintiffs sought to certify several classes of detainees and prisoners, the release of certain individuals at high risk of developing serious illness from COVID-19, and injunctions governing the Sheriff's response to COVID-19 in Maricopa County's jails, as well as attorneys' fees. The plaintiffs claimed that their rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act, were violated by the Sheriff's response to COVID-19.
The plaintiffs claimed that the defendants placed them in danger of contracting COVID-19 by continuing to book new detainees in the jail without quarantining them from the existing population, as well as a host of other unsafe practices, including a lack of masks and cleaning supplies, little testing for individuals held in the jail or jail staff, and crowded conditions that prevented social distancing. According to the complaint, the pretrial detainees' Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated by the conditions of their confinement, which amounted to deliberate indifference and unconstitutional punishment prior to conviction. The convicted prisoners made a similar Eighth Amendment deliberate indifference claim. Additionally, the subclasses of prisoners with disabilities claimed that their rights under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act to equal access to jail programming were violated by the defendants' COVID-19 response. Finally, the plaintiffs requested that the court release medically vulnerable pretrial detainees.
The case was assigned to United States District Judge Steven P. Logan. On June 29, 2020, the plaintiffs filed an ex parte motion for a temporary restraining order against the defendants, ordering them to improve COVID-19 safety protocols and begin releasing medically vulnerable pretrial detainees. Judge Logan denied the plaintiffs' ex parte request, but set a briefing schedule to determine whether to grant a similar preliminary injunction on July 2, 2020. The defendants then moved to dismiss the case on July 20, 2020.
Judge Logan resolved both of these motions in an August 14, 2020 opinion. He denied the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction, finding that the plaintiffs did not demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits of their claims. He also granted the defendants' motion to dismiss some of the plaintiffs' municipal liability claims against the Sheriff, but not the County.
Shortly after the filing of the lawsuit, back on June 29, 2020, the plaintiffs had moved for class certification. Judge Logan granted that motion in a November 13, 2020 opinion and certified two classes, one of detainees incarcerated pending trial and one of convicted prisoners, and four subclasses (two within each class) of medically vulnerable individuals and individuals with disabilities.
After class certification was granted, the parties began the discovery process. The case is ongoing.
Jonah Hudson-Erdman - 03/17/2021
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