The American Civil Liberties Union on Saturday filed a class-action lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Prisons and the Lompoc correctional complex for “mismanaging one of the worst public health catastrophes related to COVID-19 anywhere in the country,” the document claims. The filing names BOP director Michael Carvajal and Louis Milusnic, acting warden of the Lompoc complex, where more than 1,088 inmates and 39 staff have tested positive for the virus since it was first detected in late March. Two inmates have died.
“This crisis need never have reached such horrific proportions,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a prepared statement. The organization is also suing the BOP’s Terminal Island facility, where eight inmates have died. “Through a series of unconscionable delays, blunders, and failures to follow official guidelines, the situation grew unimaginably worse. And still, Terminal Island and Lompoc prison officials refuse to take adequate remedial actions, including those approved by the U.S. Congress and Attorney General’s office.”
The lawsuit accuses federal officials of not enacting proper safety protocols, providing basic sanitary supplies like soap and hand sanitizer, or distributing sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) to either inmates or staff. It also claims authorities did not conduct timely testing or do enough to isolate infected prisoners. These conditions allowed the virus to “spread like wildfire” within the close confines of the facilities, said the ACLU, which lodged the class-action Lompoc complaint on behalf of five inmates.