MORROW COUNTY — A Southern District Court judge ordered the release of 12 civil immigration detainees at the Morrow County Jail into self-quarantine citing the “reckless, out-of-control spread of infection” in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contracted detention facility “was constitutionally unacceptable.”
Morrow County Health District’s last report showed that of last Friday, 53 — the majority of the inmates at Morrow County Jail — have been infected with COVID-19.
The judge found that Morrow County Jail’s lack of access to medical staff and the failure to monitor detainees’ symptoms or provide treatment likely constitute “deliberate indifference.”
The detainee was later transferred out of the jail. ICE provided no follow-up records of his condition or whereabouts, court records showed.
Because the detainees were incarcerated for pending civil cases with no criminal charges, the court found that the minimal risk of the flight was outweighed by the risk of severe health consequences that the detainees experienced at the infected facility.
There was no evidence that any detainee was attended to by a physician while at the jail, despite the jail’s ability to arrange telehealth consultation with a doctor, according to court records.
“There is record evidence to indicate that the prospect of seeing a doctor is illusory,” the court noted.
Another detainee was denied an inhaler for his asthma because he did not arrive with a medical record. When he asked to see a doctor to get a prescription, he was told he could not, according to court records.
In screening upon intake, the jail also consistently claimed that detainees reported no illness. But no staff on-site had the language ability to communicate with their detainees who spoke a language other than English, and no translator was provided, the court found.
“It is unacceptable that, in gathering information that might indicate an individual’s health is in jeopardy, correctional officers may not even understand what the detainee is saying,” the order stated.
Morrow County Jail did not have to detain immigrants except that it voluntarily entered a contract with the federal government to house ICE detainees.
The jail reportedly contradicted ICE guidelines of assessing detainees’ health by medical professionals upon intakes. Instead, the assessment was at least mostly done by jail staff with no medical training, who received no instruction on what to do with the health information they gathered, the court found.
Court records suggested that the outbreak at the Morrow County Jail occurred after the jail transferred detainees to and from other facilities with known COVID-19 cases. The detainees were never quarantined at Morrow after the transfer, according to an April lawsuit. Jail staff also reportedly did not wear PPE until recently.
The lawsuit further reported overcrowding and inadequate access to hygiene products in the jail, in which 80 inmates shared one water fountain, one telephone, one bathroom and watered down soap that did not lather. The inmates had one foot between each bed and were not given masks prior to the outbreak.
The court remarked that with regards to the spread of infection, “the horse is (unfortunately) out of the barn,” and noted that “unrebutted evidence demonstrates that an unhygienic environment inhibits an individual’s ability to recover from COVID-19.”
In arguing that the jail had met the standards of medical screening and care, Homeland Security Manager Christopher LaBier offered no basis for his claims nor evidence that he had even visited the jail since the pandemic began, the judge noted. LaBier supervises the ICE facilities in southern Ohio.
“As best the Court can tell, Mr. LaBier has attested to the facts that he assumes or hopes to be true,” the order reads.
There are currently five county jails in Ohio contracted by ICE to hold immigrant detainees. Under the contract, Morrow County Jail is paid $68.83 per day for every ICE detainee housed at their facilities, according to Ohio Immigrant Alliance report.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has called for the contract to be suspended.
Of the 53 reported COVID-19 patients in Morrow County Jail, 48 were immigrant detainees, according to ICE records.
