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Law360 (March 24, 2020, 6:01 PM EDT ) As the number of COVID-19 cases passed 1,000 in Massachusetts, the local American Civil Liberties Union affiliate and two defense attorney organizations on Tuesday asked the state's top court to take "extraordinary" emergency steps to limit the prison population during the pandemic.
The emergency petition by the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Committee for Public Counsel Services, or CPCS, and the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers asked the Supreme Judicial Court to reduce the number of people held in the state's jails, prisons and houses of correction by immediately limiting the number of people taken into custody and releasing certain prisoners.
"This petition seeks extraordinary relief for extraordinary circumstances," the organizations wrote, calling on the SJC to use its superintendent powers "to mitigate the mortal harm that the COVID-19 pandemic will inflict upon incarcerated people, on corrections staff and on all of our communities."
Over the weekend, the first confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported within the Massachusetts prison system, after three prisoners and one officer tested positive for the disease.
"This does not bode well," the emergency petition says. "Correctional facilities, where physical distancing and vigilant hygiene are impossible, can be petri dishes for the rapid spread of infectious disease."
A prison outbreak would not only endanger the 16,500 people currently behind bars, the petition says, but would also put correctional officers, medical staff, their families and communities at risk.
"The more people who contract the virus, the more treatment they will need, and the more precious resources their treatment will require," the groups say. "Prison outbreaks imperil us all."
The groups are asking the high court to reduce the volume of those who enter state jails and prisons in the first place by taking the threat of COVID-19 into consideration when weighing the need for pretrial detention.
Anyone who is in custody and not a danger to the public should be released, the advocates say, and prisoners near the end of their sentences who do not pose a threat to the public, or who might be vulnerable to the virus, should have their sentences deemed served.
"There are hundreds of vulnerable people behind bars who are no danger to society," said Anthony Benedetti, chief counsel for CPCS. "Every day they remain locked up is another day they are serving a sentence they were not given — a punishment that forces them to potentially live in close quarters with a deadly, highly contagious virus."
While public defenders have been filing motions to get their clients out of jail, Benedetti said what is needed is "immediate, systemwide action if we want to prevent an unconstitutional catastrophe."
The SJC has already taken drastic measures to stem the spread of the disease, the groups pointed out, including by closing the courthouses, canceling oral arguments and delaying trials. SJC Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants has implored the state's bar to work creatively and collectively to keep the wheels of justice turning during the pandemic.
At least nine state and local court systems — in Alabama, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia — have already taken steps to limit incarceration during the crisis.
On Tuesday, Massachusetts state officials said the number of cases of coronavirus had risen to 1,159, up from fewer than 800 on Monday. Eleven Massachusetts residents have died due to the disease, according to the state's Department of Public Health.
A representative for the trial courts did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The petitioning groups are represented in-house by Rebecca Jacobstein, Benjamin H. Keehn, Rebecca Kiley and David Rangaviz of the Committee For Public Counsel Services, Matthew R. Segal, Jessie J. Rossman, Laura K. McCready and Kristin M. Mulvey of the ACLU of Massachusetts, and by Chauncey B. Wood and Victoria Kelleher of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
--Editing by Stephen Berg.
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