Resource: Settlement Reached to Protect Hawaii Prisoners from COVID-19

On November 10, 2021, one day before first detection of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, a federal district court in Hawaii approved a settlement in a lawsuit filed over the response to the pandemic by the state Department of Public Safety (DPS), which operates its jails and prisons. Just in time for the “Omicron winter”—as the new variant quickly became the dominant strain of infection in the U.S.—the settlement established measures to protect both pretrial detainees and prisoners from the disease.