Defense lawyers, others argue coronavirus poses threat to jails and community
BOSTON — The state’s highest court heard arguments Tuesday on an emergency petition aimed at lowering the number of inmates in jails and prisons across the state amid the coronavirus crisis.
Public defenders and defense attorneys asked the Supreme Judicial Court to order the release of certain “vulnerable” inmates to limit the spread of the COVID-19, the disease associated with the coronavirus, in jails and prisons.
The petition was opposed by Gov. Charlie Baker and the state’s sheriffs, who run county jails. District attorneys across the state were split on the filing, with Norfolk County’s Michael Morrissey and Plymouth County’s Tim Cruz in opposition, and Suffolk County’s Rachael Rollins, who was elected on a message of criminal justice reform, in support.
The four-hour long hearing was done by teleconference due to social distancing measures because of the coronavirus pandemic. Chief Justice Ralph Gants said he believed it was the first time the state Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments by telephone. A partial audio file of the hearing was released late Tuesday afternoon.
“A rather extraordinary hearing for an extraordinary time,” Gants said.
An emergency petition filed with the court by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts, Committee for Public Counsel Services and the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers asked the justices to reduce the number of people entering jails and prisons; order the release of certain pretrial detainees; and free those serving sentences who are nearing the end of their term, are vulnerable to coronavirus or don’t pose a threat to the public.
“This case presents this court . . . with an opportunity to save the lives of incarcerated people who are especially vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic and, in doing so, save the lives of many others,” said Matthew Segal, an attorney with the ACLU, during the hearing.
The group has proposed a system that would allow individualized review of cases.
“Correctional facilities, where physical distancing and vigilant hygiene are impossible, can be petri dishes for the rapid spread of infectious disease, the emergency petition said. “Outbreaks in our prisons will, of course, imperil the lives of incarcerated people, but they will also endanger correctional officers and medical staff, their families, and their communities as staff cycle through the facilities.”
The state’s trial courts have pushed off trials and closed courthouses except for emergency hearings with only a small number of people allowed in. People arrested and charged with crimes are being arraigned by teleconference from town and city police department jail cells with judges in district courts.
In a court filing against the petition, Morrissey, Cruz and district attorneys for the Cape and Islands, Bristol, Essex, Worcester and Hampden Counties asked for the request to be dismissed.
“The petitioners do not account for the safety and rights of the victims of crime, and they do not account for the safety and rights of the public,” the filing said. “To be sure, the virus presents a unique challenge in such settings and complete immunity from infection is, unfortunately, unlikely to be achieved, any more than it is in a myriad of other settings, ranging from shared homes to supermarkets.”
About a dozen workers went into isolation last week after a co-worker at the Plymouth County jail tested positive for the disease.
The state’s sheriffs in the hearing were represented by Bob Harnais, outside counsel to Norfolk County Sheriff Jerry McDermott. In a statement after the hearing, the state’s sheriffs said they are all maintaining clean facilities.
“Sheriffs have been at the forefront of implementing COVID-19 preventative and responsive measures,” the statement said. “They are working daily with our public health and public safety partners to manage the health and well-being of all who live and work in their facilities. The Sheriffs will work to ensure these efforts continue in the days and weeks ahead.”
Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan said last week that his office has agreed to free 19 of 76 pretrial detainees held in the Franklin and Hampshire County jails. He said they should be released in the coming days. Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office said it has agreed to release about 30 pretrial detainees.
“People do not stop being human the day they are sentenced. Although some have made terrible choices or engaged in reprehensible behavior, the sentence they received for their crime did not include contracting COVID-19 and death,” Rollins said in a statement. ” And for those pre-trial detainees, the situation is even more dire. Those individuals have yet to be found guilty of their alleged crime.”
Baker said he opposed efforts to reduce the prison population solely because of fear that the disease could spread in a coronavirus press conference on Tuesday.
“This is a very difficult time to be putting people into the community, unless you really believe that’s going to be better for them and better for the community, and I think our view is, we don’t buy as a matter of law, fact or policy that the argument that’s being made before the court is the correct one,” Baker said.
Baker said that apart from some cases at the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater where some people might not have been “upfront” about their physical health, there are no cases of coronavirus inside the state’s Department of Correction facilities.
The Bridgewater facility is medium security and houses male inmates identified as sex offenders who have been sentenced to prison and those who have been civilly committed as sexually dangerous persons. At least 17 inmates and four staff members tested positive for COVID-19 there.
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