WORKING DRAFT PLAN Executive Summary COVID-19 Prison Conditions in the State of Ohio
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Prisoners Legal Advocacy Network (PLAN) National Lawyers Guild – Delaware-New Jersey Chapter 132 Nassau Street, Room 922 New York, NY 10038 Toll-Free Telephone/Facsimile 1-833-NLG-PLAN, ext. 1 [email protected] PLAN COVID-19 CAMPAIGN Executive Summary COVID-19 Prison Conditions in the State of Ohio WORKING DRAFT Contributing PLAN Legal Response Team Member: Melanie Kray, PLAN Senior Clerk, University of Washington, Class of 2022 Contact Person: Stanley Holdorf Email: [email protected] Telephone: 1-833-NLG-PLAN, Ext. 1 Date of Issuance: September 19, 2020 DISCLAIMER The following information should not be construed as legal advice. The information and analysis set forth herein does not initiate or imply an attorney-client relationship. The opinions and analysis that follow represent the viewpoints of the PLAN legal response team members credited below, and may not reflect the viewpoints of the National Lawyers Guild or the Prisoners Legal Advocacy Network. WORKING DRAFT PLAN Executive Summary COVID-19 Prison Conditions in the State of Ohio Page 1 of 21 SUMMARY Ohio’s state prisons have garnered national attention for comprising two of the top ten COVID-19 cluster outbreaks in the U.S. at multiple points -- Marion Correctional Institution and Pickaway Correctional Institution. Active positive cases at those institutions have since declined, only for active positive cases at other Ohio state prisons -- Madison Correctional Institution, Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution, and Chillicothe Correctional Institution -- to increase rapidly. Despite this, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction continues only to test symptomatic inmates and new intakes. An incarcerated affiant at Ohio State Penitentiary reported that indigent inmates were receiving one bar of hotel-sized soap every two weeks, while all others had to buy soap from the commissary. Though some individual institutions are requiring mask use by staff and inmates alike, there is no uniform statewide policy on this matter. As of September 5, 2020, Ohio’s state prison system ranks 11 in the country for inmate cases per 10,000 inmates, and 3 in the country for inmate deaths per 10,000 inmates. I. Chronology March 11 – Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction suspends inmate visitation indefinitely as a precautionary measure March 29 – First confirmed positive COVID-19 case in Ohio DOC in staff member at Marion Correctional Center1 April 3 – First confirmed positive COVID-19 case in Ohio DOC inmate at Marion Correctional Center2 1 https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/03/29/employee-positive-covid-ohio- prison/2937726001/ 2https://www.marionstar.com/story/news/local/2020/04/17/covid-19-marion-prison-home-one- ohios-largest-outbreaks/5151815002/ WORKING DRAFT PLAN Executive Summary COVID-19 Prison Conditions in the State of Ohio Page 2 of 21 April 10 – Gov. Mike DeWine says every prisoner in a facility with known coronavirus cases would be tested3 April 23 – After mass testing at Marion and Pickaway Correctional Centers, 80% of inmates tested positive4 April 30 – Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction announces only symptomatic inmates will be tested;5 Mass testing at the Marion Correctional Institution revealed that approximately 96 percent of inmates who tested positive for COVID-19 were asymptomatic6 May 18 – Despite climbing case numbers, Ohio’s prisons start accepting new inmates again, taking the following precautions: (1) the state will only accept 50 new inmates per day; (2) every incoming inmate will be tested when they first enter the system, be quarantined for 14 days, and remain at a reception facility for at least 35 days before being transferred to one of Ohio’s other prisons7 June 9 – Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a preliminary injunction directing the Bureau of Prisons to identify and transfer elderly and medically vulnerable individuals out of Elkton Federal Correctional Institution to limit their exposure to COVID-198 3https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/continuing-coverage/coronavirus/despite-staggering- case-counts-and-50-deaths-prisons-halt-mass-covid-19-testing 4 https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2020/04/23/nearly-80-of-inmates-have-covid-19-at-two-ohio- prisons/ 5https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/continuing-coverage/coronavirus/despite-staggering- case-counts-and-50-deaths-prisons-halt-mass-covid-19-testing 6https://governor.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/governor/media/news-and-media/covid19-update- april-30-2020 7https://www.cleveland.com/coronavirus/2020/05/ohio-prisons-are-again-accepting-new- inmates-even-as-coronavirus-death-toll-rises.html 8https://www.acluohio.org/archives/press-releases/sixth-circuit-court-of-appeals-strikes-down- ruling-requiring-bureau-of-prisons-to-release-medically-vulnerable-people-at-elkton-fci?c=183529 WORKING DRAFT PLAN Executive Summary COVID-19 Prison Conditions in the State of Ohio Page 3 of 21 June 30 – Ohio has the highest number of inmate deaths out of all states at 86 deaths9 July 8 – Madison Correctional Institution and Noble Correctional Institution reopen visitation on an outdoor-only basis10 July 15 – Ohio State Penitentiary reopens visitation on an indoor-only no- contact basis11 July 26 – Warren Correctional Institution reopens visitation on an outdoor- only basis12 August 13 – Madison Correctional Institution announced as site of new COVID-19 outbreak13 August 21 – Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution announced as new COVID-19 outbreak site14 II. Indicative Prison Incidents as Reported COVID-19 Inmate Testing (regularly updated) As of September 5, among the five largest clusters of cases in the United States are Marion Correctional Institution (Marion, Ohio; 2,439 cases; 2nd) and Pickaway Correctional Institution (Scioto Township, Ohio; 1,791 cases). The 19th 9https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/new-outbreaks-push-us-inmate-coronavirus- cases-past-50000 10https://drive.google.com/File/d/1IK9a9TsrC0wAhfnuryGFlkBjCmoZxXsV/view?usp=sharing 11 Id. 12 Id. 13https://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/story/news/2020/08/13/new-covid-19-outbreak- hitting-state-prison-west-columbus-137-test-positive/3365669001/ 14 WORKING DRAFT PLAN Executive Summary COVID-19 Prison Conditions in the State of Ohio Page 4 of 21 largest cluster of cases in the United States is at Elkton Prison Complex (Lisbon, Ohio; 877 cases; 5th).15 As of July 19, Ohio state prisons have the fourth most COVID-19 cases in the country, behind Texas, federal prisons nationwide, and California. There is one caveat for this statistic -- the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) likely has a more realistic case count than other state prison systems due to their mass testing. Ohio state prisons rank third in the country for inmate deaths, behind federal prisons nationwide and Texas. In comparison to the general population in Ohio, ODRC inmates have a 1,692% higher rate of cases than the rate for Ohio’s entire population (1,042 cases per 10,000 inmates); a 572% higher rate of COVID-19 deaths than the rate for Ohio’s entire population (18 deaths per 10,000 inmates); and a 285% higher testing rate than the rate for Ohio’s general population (3,437 tests administered per 10,000 inmates). In comparison to neighboring states, Michigan had 1,009 cases per 10,000 inmates and 18 deaths per 10,000 inmates; Pennsylvania had 66 cases per 10,000 inmates and 2.3 deaths per 10,000 inmates; Indiana had 271 cases per 10,000 and 7.4 deaths per 10,000 inmates; Kentucky had 530 cases per 10,000 inmates and 3.4 deaths per 10,000 inmates; West Virginia had 245 cases per 10,000 inmates and 0 deaths per 10,000 inmates.16 III. COVID-19 Policies Adopted by Prisons and Jails ● “DRC cares about the safety and health of our staff, incarcerated adults and their loved ones. Because of this we are putting several safety measures in place within our facilities as we prepare for the potential operational impact of COVID-19. We apologize for the inconvenience this 15 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html#clusters 16https://sanduskyregister.com/news/267415/ohio-prisons-among-most-in-nation-with-covid-19- cases-deaths/ WORKING DRAFT PLAN Executive Summary COVID-19 Prison Conditions in the State of Ohio Page 5 of 21 may cause, but it is absolutely necessary to protect all Ohioans as best as we can. These safety measures include: 1. Visiting will be suspended indefinitely; 2. Volunteers entering our facilities will be suspended indefinitely; 3. Only mission critical contractors (construction, medical, food service, etc.) will be permitted to enter the facilities. Mission critical will be determined by the managing officer; 4. Staff, mission critical contractors, and attorney health screenings will begin upon entry into the facilities; 5. No outside inmate workers will be in the community; inmate workers will only be permitted on state grounds; 6. Only mission critical transfers will take place. Reception, medical, and security are mission critical. 7. In-service training will be changed to mission critical only. 8. CTA trainings will only be mission critical and those necessary for staff to maintain their positions/certifications/licensures.”17 ● From March 10-May 13, the Cuyahoga County18 jail released about 900 people, reducing its population by more than 30% ● As of April 14th, the Franklin County Jail19 population in Ohio has decreased by more than 30% over the course of 30 days. To do this, the county reduced average daily bookings from over 70 to about 25 per day and released people held pretrial for “non-violent misdemeanors,” people over the age of 60, and people held for technical violations of probation 17 https://www.drc.ohio.gov/Family/COVID-19-UPDATES 18 http://www.valleyjournal.net/Article/23213/Emptier-jails-could-stay-that-way 19https://www.columbusalive.com/news/20200417/conFronting-coronavirus-threat-in-ohios- correctional-system WORKING DRAFT PLAN Executive Summary COVID-19 Prison Conditions in the State of Ohio Page 6 of 21 and parole.