ACLU Files Class Action Against Bureau of Prisons and FMC Butner for Continued Bungling of COVID Response

 

Class Action Against FMC Butner Moves Forward, Alleges Deliberate Indifference

 

by Derek Gilna

 

            Like you, I am intrigued by life's mysteries. Why is the recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken a well-kept secret, when countless tell-all books have been generated by former White House staffers about supposedly private conversations with the President?  How does DOJ manage to locate and serve expired foods when this country is the world's  largest food exporter? How does a certain aged and declining Presidential candidate who did no campaigning garner 15 million more votes than his (still) wildly popular former boss (Obama) when reelected in 2012? Why is it so hard for DOJ to properly medically classify, competently treat, or release aged, disabled, non-violent offenders who have served high percentages of their sentences and who have programmed non-stop?

            For now, I will just stick to the facts that most media outlets do not seem particularly interested in. The ACLU in late October filed a comprehensive and well-documented class action against FMC Butner, which lays out in excruciating detail the DOJ's failure at its primary MEDICAL center to properly treat or release health-compromised prisoners in the face of COVID-19 infestation. (This lawsuit will be extensively covered in my article in Prison Legal News.)   There are at least 160 active COVID cases, and probably more that are undiagnosed, but DOJ continues to avoid mass testing, when in the US more than 1 million are tested daily. Butner has also distinguished itself with virtually NO CARES Act releases, and no approvals of initial compassionate release applications.  Hallinan, et al.  v. Scarantino, et al., 2020-ct-3333, U.S.D.C. for the E.D. of North Carolina, October 26, 2020.

            Current COVID counts: Ft Dix, 214; FMC Rochester, 110; Waseca, over 200; Milan, over 100; Pollack, 25-30; Ashland, over half, with local hospitals at max capacity; Greenville, 700; Duluth, 125; FMC Lexington camp, 292,  9 death; Gilmer, 10; Yazoo City, over 50; Tallahassee, over 50; : Pekin well over 100.  The DOJ Inspector General on November 17 cited Oakdale and Pollock for failure to prevent and contain the virus.           Forrest City, hit hard earlier and with current cases, is reducing the number of prisoners in its overcrowded and mold-infested facilities. However, inter prison transfers continue to fuel outbreak in DOJ facilities across the county. Have your families write or call your Congressmen or Senators, a strategy which has focused attention on Ft. Dix, and pass along the fact that DOJ for a time appeared to have a strategy of deliberately infecting their helpless charges to build (or test)  "herd immunity."

            If you already filed and were denied for CR, especially if the judge cited the lack of prior infections at your facility, or you were already infected,  you are eligible to file once again, citing the new outbreaks, and scientific evidence that shows that those who have "recovered" will have live-long side-effects and likely a higher death rate.

            The good news is that all of Joe Biden's potential candidates for Attorney General, who is charge of the federal prison system, are committed to continuing criminal justice reforms, although Senator Corey Booker, with no prior ties to the criminal justice bureaucracy to weigh him down, would be the preferred candidate.

            Fear not, and let not your heart be troubled.

 

Derek A. Gilna, JD, MARJ, Director, Federal Legal Center, Inc.

113 McHenry Rd., #173, Buffalo Grove, IL   60089 (and Indiana)

dgilna1948@yahoo.com (backup: dagilna1948@yahoo.com),

Blog at "Derek Gilna's Criminal Justice Blog."