Resource: ACLU-VA Reaches Settlement in COVID-19 Lawsuit Against VDOC on Behalf of 27 Individuals

After weeks of intense negotiations with the Office of the Attorney General, the ACLU of Virginia and Charlottesville attorney Elliott Harding reached a settlement agreement with Gov. Ralph Northam, Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran and other state officials in the lawsuit initially brought on April 8 by Harding on behalf of 27 people who are incarcerated in Virginia prisons. The lawsuit alleged that Virginia is violating the U.S. Constitution by failing to release medically vulnerable residents of state prisons from overcrowded facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic and by failing to keep them safe from exposure to the novel coronavirus.