Federal Court Case: Corrections Officials Botched COVID-19 Response In Prisons … The lawsuit on behalf of Hawaii inmates asks that a public health expert be appointed to oversee the pandemic response in Hawaii prisons and jails.
Corrections officials have botched the COVID-19 pandemic response so badly in Hawaii’s prisons and jails that the state is violating the constitutional rights of the inmates, an attorney for the inmates told a federal judge on Thursday.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of the inmates in June points out that major COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred in six correctional facilities holding Hawaii inmates, and about half the state’s inmate population has been infected. In all, the Department of Public Safety reports 2,188 inmates caught the coronavirus since the pandemic began more than a year ago.
The department reports nine inmates have died of the respiratory disease, and at least two others had the disease when they died. Autopsies done in Arizona in those two cases concluded the prisoners died of health conditions such as obesity and diabetes, rather than COVID-19.
