ACLU Files Class Action Lawsuit to Protect Incarcerated People at the Deadliest Federal Prison

WASHINGTON – In response to intensifying COVID-19 outbreaks at the federal prison complex in Butner, North Carolina, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina, Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and Winston & Strawn filed a class action lawsuit today seeking adequate medical care for people incarcerated in Butner Federal Correctional Complex. The lawsuit is asking for the constitutional rights of people incarcerated to be protected and conditions be made safe for those who remain in custody amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Corrections institutions have continuously failed to take even the most basic life-saving measures to protect incarcerated people from COVID-19 — nowhere is this truer than Butner, which has been the deadliest of all federal facilities during this pandemic,” said Maria Morris, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “Prisons and jails are the sites of the biggest hotspots for COVID-19 everywhere in the country. If the courts don’t intervene to mitigate the humanitarian crisis unfolding, they will be responsible for the lives lost.”

Plaintiffs claim that people who need medical care for issues other than COVID-19 also haven’t been able to access it during the pandemic, a violation of their […]

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