Class Action Claims Mississippi ICE Detention Center ‘Recklessly’ Exposed Detainees to COVID-19 Virus

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A detainee at the Adams County Detention Center in Natchez, Mississippi claims the facility’s warden and other officials have “recklessly or intentionally” exposed detainees to the novel coronavirus.

According to the 13-page case out of Mississippi federal court, the defendants violated the plaintiff’s constitutional rights by transferring him and others to a new housing unit designated for incoming detainees who were being quarantined due to possible COVID-19 exposure. The lawsuit alleges that while the plaintiff and those being housed in his unit previously had no exposure to the virus, they were told that prison officials could not guarantee that the incoming detainees were free from the virus, thereby exposing them to a risk of “serious and permanent damages.”

“Thus,” the plaintiff relates, “due to the careless actions of these detention authorities, I am being exposed to death, or at least, to be infected with one of the most devastating sickness [sic] that may cripple me for the rest of my life.”

The case argues that the defendants—the Adams County Detention Center warden, an unnamed assistant warden, an unnamed official and several unnamed ICE deportation officers—have treated the plaintiff and other detainees “just like cattle” by moving them around without regard to their safety and retaliating against those who attempt to assert their rights.

Per the complaint, Adams County Detention Center contracts with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold aliens in deportation proceedings. The plaintiff says he was being held in pod A of the housing unit S, a unit largely protected from possible coronavirus contamination since detainees have no contact with those in other units.

According to the case, the defendants on July 24, 2020 transferred all detainees from pod C to pod A in housing unit S and brought to pod C new detainees who were being quarantined due to possible COVID-19 exposure. The plaintiff says the same custody officers were working in both sides of the unit, constantly passing between those who were possibly contagious to those in the plaintiff’s pod who were “100% free” of the virus.

The lawsuit goes on to allege that on August 19, 2020, amid rumors that some detainees in pod C had tested positive for COVID-19, both pod A and pod C were transferred to housing unit B, which has three pods. Again, the same custody officers worked between all three pods, the case says, exposing the plaintiff and those in his pod to “double danger” of coronavirus exposure.

“The custody officers have to walk around inside of the pods and be in contact with detainees from the three pods,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants were obligated by law to quarantine new detainees in one unit and assign trained personnel to only that unit to avoid “rapidly disseminat[ing] the virus throughout the entire system with devastating consequences to the public health.”

The lawsuit also adds that the defendants assigned 10 new detainees to the plaintiff’s pod on September 8, 2020—a decision opposed by several individuals in the pod due to the possible contagiousness of the comers.

Later that day, the suit continues, detention center personnel and ICE officials had the plaintiff’s pod lock down in their cells and “one by one” addressed the individuals who “demanded their rights to be respected.” After the first detainee refused to be taken into segregation, he was “immediately jumped by several officers that thrown [sic] him to the floor and subdued him with some plastic-handcuffs that I have seen ICE use in their arrests,” the plaintiff attests, adding that six others were then taken into segregation without resistance.

According to the case, the assistant warden then addressed the plaintiff’s pod and told them that the behavior of those who opposed the ingress of new detainees “will not be tolerated,” adding that in the future, he expected “no opposition” to the addition of new individuals into the pod.

“The whole process was about intimidation and suppression,” the plaintiff writes, noting that the other detainees in his pod were afraid to sign their names on his complaint, which was filed without legal representation.

The plaintiff states that although Adams County Detention Center needs to make space to accommodate new detainees, the defendants have failed to follow proper safety procedures to avoid exposing others to the COVID-19 virus. The detention center should designate quarantine units for incoming detainees staffed by personnel trained and assigned to only those units, the case states, arguing that the defendants “did not have any right” to expose the plaintiff and others in his unit to individuals who may have been contagious.

The defendants’ failure to act, according to the suit, represents an “intentional, deliberate and callous indifference” toward the health of detainees, who suffered “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of their constitutional rights.

The plaintiff looks to represent all individuals from pod A of housing unit S who were “recklessly or intentionally exposed” to the COVID-19 virus.

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