Advocates say they will press for early inmate release after top court turns down lawsuit
Representatives of public interest groups who sued to force the state to release vulnerable inmates during the coronavirus outbreak said this weekend they will continue to press for legal action after the North Carolina Supreme Court turned down their case.
The court sent the advocates a notice Friday that it would not take up the case. The court gave no explanation, but left them the opportunity to try again in state Superior Court, which is where most civil cases begin. The advocates had petitioned the highest court because they contend the inmates are in a dire situation needing emergency action.
“Now we are placed in a position that we have to pursue this through the normal litigation chain, which can be slow and cumbersome, but we have no choice,” said Irving Joyner, an N.C. Central University law school professor who is representing the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. “Unfortunately, I think that people will needlessly die, or be needlessly infected with this coronavirus as we litigate this matter through the courts.”
The NAACP chapter, Disability Rights North Carolina, the ACLU’s North Carolina chapter and several inmates filed the lawsuit on April 8. At that point, 20 inmates had tested positive for the virus in a handful of prisons across the state.
Five days later, state Department of Public Safety officials announced they had identified roughly 500 inmates who could be eligible for early release. They include inmates who are scheduled for release this year, or are 65 and older with underlying health conditions. Female inmates who are pregnant or 50 and older with underlying health conditions would also be considered.
Since then, a major outbreak hit Neuse Correctional Institution in Goldsboro, where more than 280 of 770 inmates have tested positive. That makes it one of the hardest-hit prisons in the nation. More results are pending as the state is now testing every inmate there.
Joyner and other advocates cited the Neuse outbreak as evidence the state needs to do more.
“The governor and state officials have a clear constitutional duty to prevent mass suffering and death of incarcerated people in their custody,” said Kristi Graunke, the NC ACLU’s legal director said in an email message. “We will continue to explore every avenue to ensure that they fulfill this duty. A large scale outbreak has already occurred at Neuse, making action by our elected officials and courts all the more urgent.”
Troubled by lack of testing
Joyner and Susan Pollitt, a senior attorney at Disability Rights North Carolina, said they are also troubled by the lack of testing at many state prisons. More than 20 are showing that no tests have been conducted.
Prisons, along with nursing homes, are vulnerable places when outbreaks occur because people are closely confined.
Jerry Higgins, a spokesman for the public safety department, said prison officials are working with the state Department of Health and Human Services on how and when they can do testing at other prisons for inmates and staff. He said a process and timeline have yet to be determined.
The families of inmates say they are struggling to get information from the prisons. A state website showing cases at each facility lags in reporting.
Higgins said Sunday afternoon that two inmates have tested positive at the N.C. Correctional Institution for Women just south of downtown Raleigh. The website only lists two negative tests there, even after WRAL confirmed with prison officials a case on Thursday.
Alarming news about cousin
One of those positive cases appears to be Wendy Pellom, 47, an inmate at the minimum-security facility there. Her cousin, Alecia Kennedy-Jiribe, 65, of Brunswick County, said she learned from a prison nurse on Sunday that Pellom tested positive, and is now on oxygen in the hospital with pneumonia.
Kennedy-Jiribe is raising Pellom’s four children and did not know her cousin had been hospitalized.
On Friday, a public health employee with Wake County’s coronavirus response team contacted Kennedy-Jiribe looking for Pellom, and asking if she was in the hospital with the virus. That was alarming news. Pellom has bone cancer, Kennedy-Jiribe said, and would be vulnerable.
Over the next two days, Kennedy-Jiribe said she tried to get information from prison officials about her cousin’s whereabouts and whether she had contracted the disease.
“I don’t know what’s going on and nobody will tell me,” Kennedy-Jiribe said. “All they can say is wait until Monday until the doctor comes back.”
It wasn’t until Sunday afternoon, after the N&O had inquired on her behalf, that Kennedy-Jiribe learned her cousin had been hospitalized.
Kennedy-Jiribe said the prison nurse told her Pellom went to the hospital with a fever and at one point needed three liters of oxygen. But on Sunday, the fever was gone, and Pellom was down to needing one-liter.
“She was helpful, and I know a whole lot more and I told her I appreciated her calling me,” Kennedy-Jiribe said. “But I’m pretty sure that someone got on their tail and told them to do what they are supposed to do.”
Staff writer Ames Alexander of The Charlotte Observer contributed to this report.
