WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd May, 2020) ASHINGTON, May 22 (Sputnik), Barrington M. Salmon - Several members of the faith community and legal and national civil rights organizations filed a class action lawsuit in Federal court seeking emergency relief and a temporary restraining order to stem the spread of COVID-19 in the Dallas County jail.
So far, activists said, 331 people in the jail have tested positive for coronavirus and many other individuals are in danger of contracting the disease because the have preexisting medical conditions or are otherwise medically vulnerable. Elizabeth Rossi, a senior attorney with Civil Rights Corps, said the lawsuit named three plaintiffs but includes the class of 1,800 people who are at heightened risk or could be severely compromised by the novel coronavirus global pandemic.
Representatives of the coalition hosted a virtual press conference announcing the lawsuit and called on Sheriff Marion Brown to take the necessary steps needed to put "a stop to the unsafe and unconstitutional conditions that are causing immediate and irreparable harm, the imminent loss of human life and serious damage to human health."
"It is criminally unjust for the people in the jail and staff to be given a death sentence," Rev. Frederick D. Haynes, senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, told Sputnik. "They are primed for a death sentence because jails, sadly, have become the new incubators for Covid-19. It's morally reprehensible. I am making a moral appeal for the health of the county and the country."
Henderson Hill, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said the state of affairs is "unacceptable."
"We've been advised to stay at home but detainees are crammed in the Dallas County Jail, held in tight spaces, in dorms with beds anchored to the floors and no way for detainees to stay six feet apart," Hill told Sputnik. "Staff, vendors, suppliers, and attorneys are in and out on a daily basis. And these 331 individuals are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters. They are detained, yes, but they are members of society."
The ACLU is joined in the lawsuit by Civil Rights Corps, the ACLU of Texas, the Next Generation Action Network Legal Advocacy Fund, and Susman Godfrey L.L.F.
