Oregon civil rights group seeks to increase lawsuit over state’s dealing with of Covid in prisons

On Monday, attorneys representing people detained in Oregon’s prisons filed a petition in federal court asking a judge to grant class action status. Earning status could significantly increase the number of people who could apply for compensation from the Oregon Department of Corrections for responding to the pandemic.

Oregon State Penitentiary (Courtesy / Wikimedia Commons)

Felishia Ramirez recalled three desperate days in December trying to get an answer from the Oregon Department of Corrections on whether or not her uncle was alive.

Her uncle Juan Tristan was imprisoned at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem during the Covid boom last winter. Ramirez said her family had a hard time getting information about Tristan’s condition as the virus spread through the state’s crowded prisons.

“If this were your family member, you’d want to know if your family member is alive or dead,” Ramirez said during a press briefing on Tuesday morning. “It’s just not right.”

After looking around, her family learned from another detainee that Tristan had been taken to Salem Hospital for a serious case of Covid. Her family visited the hospital, where Ramirez asked a doctor to whisper in her uncle’s ear that loved ones were there. On January 22, Tristan became one of 43 people detained in Oregon prisons to die of Covid.

Now, Ramirez has joined a lawsuit against the Oregon Department of Corrections seeking accountability for the state’s handling of the crisis and financial compensation.

Last year, the Oregon Justice Resource Center, a Portland-based civil rights group, and the Sugerman Law Office filed a federal lawsuit against the department arguing that medically vulnerable prisoners were denied care and put at risk while the virus was in the process 14 prisons of the state expanded. As part of the lawsuit, a judge ruled in February that the department must provide Covid vaccinations to prisoners.

On Monday, the prisoners’ attorneys filed a petition in federal court asking a judge to grant class action status. Earning status could significantly increase the number of people, including Ramirez and her family, who could seek compensation from the department.

The motion asked the court to allow three groups of people to participate in the lawsuit: the estimated 3,600 people incarcerated in Covid-diagnosed prisons in Oregon, prisoners who did not offer vaccination against the virus on a court-mandated schedule , as well as the families of people who died from Covid-related deaths while in detention.

The Oregon Department of Corrections declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. According to the department’s website, 3,607 prisoners have been diagnosed with Covid, 3,430 of whom have recovered. There were also 863 employees at Covid, 846 of whom have recovered.

As of Monday, there were only 19 active Covid cases in Oregon prisons, none of which were in the state prison, the largest state prison. To date, the facility has recorded 386 cases among prisoners and 125 among staff. The Oregon State Correctional Institute, the Mill Creek Correctional Facility, also didn’t have one, and the Santiam Correctional Institution had one.

When the Oregon Justice Resource Center announced the move to expand the lawsuit, it released documents and statements from staff at the State Department of Corrections indicating that the agency had intermittently struggled to track social distancing and masking measures to keep the spread to control the virus.

“I rang that alarm bell a long time ago,” said Juan Chavez, director of the center’s Civil Rights Project, during the press conference. “So it should come as no surprise to the defendants that this happened. If it comes as a surprise, it just shows how consciously they were indifferent throughout the process. ”

Ramirez said she would like to see other incarcerated people like her uncle receive better medical treatment from the department’s staff.

“Ultimately, it is your responsibility to take care of them within those walls,” she said. “Because they obviously can’t get out there for medical treatment.”

This story has been updated with a response from the Oregon Department of Corrections.

Contact reporter Jake Thomas at 503-575-1251 or [email protected] or @ jakethomas2009.

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