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Law360 (April 20, 2020, 11:11 PM EDT) -- The state attorney for Florida's Miami-Dade County announced Monday that 19 people being held in county jails will be released early as part of an ongoing effort to reduce inmate populations in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, but counsel for inmates in related litigation said it's not enough.
The releases, approved through a joint case review process between Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and other interested local officials, come as governments are facing increasing pressure — including a proposed class action from inmates at one county facility — to depopulate detention centers to lower the threat of an outbreak.
"I want to thank all my criminal justice partners for assisting me and my office in this continuing endeavor to reduce the number of people held in our local jails so that we can reduce the chances that COVID-19 could infect jail inmates, correctional officers and staff," Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. "Releasing lower-risk inmates, shortly before their jail sentences end, can create space for newly arrested dangerous offenders charged with committing violent crimes like murder, rape, and armed robbery, prevent a COVID-19 outbreak in the jail, and reduce the drain on public health resources."
Fernandez Rundle said she will continue what she described as a "collaborative process" of reviewing cases of sentenced inmates and nonviolent pretrial detainees that has been undertaken since late last month by her office, Miami-Dade public defender Carlos Martinez, Administrative Judge of the Criminal Courts for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Nushin Sayfie and Daniel Junior, director of Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation Department.
Alexandria Twinem of the Civil Rights Corps, who is representing the plaintiffs in a proposed class action alleging inmates' constitutional rights are being violated by inadequate conditions at the county's Metro West Detention Center, said that while they support inmate releases, officials are moving too slowly.
"Releasing people is, and will continue to be, the fastest way to slow the spread of COVID-19 in jails. But the releases today by the Miami state's attorney just aren't enough when there are hundreds of medically vulnerable people in the Metro West Detention Center whose lives are at risk every day they're locked in jail," Twinem said.
Twinem also criticized the state attorney's suggestion that one benefit of the releases would be to free up space for new inmates, calling that "counterproductive."
"The goal is to reduce the likelihood that people most at risk of serious illness or death contract the virus and to reduce the overall jail population," Twinem said. "Releasing people only to bring more in presents greater danger for the most vulnerable people who remain in the jail."
A spokeman for the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office said this release represented the second phase of the review process, following a first phase composed of 18 individuals.
"It is only those individuals who are serving sentences of 1 year or less over which any local governmental agency (or agencies) would have any jurisdictional authority," Ed Griffith said in an email, noting that in Florida all adjudicated individuals who are serving sentences of 1 year and 1 day or longer are held within the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams, who is handling the Metro West class action, issued a temporary restraining order on April 7, directing the county to take certain steps at Metro West, such as implementing social distancing guidelines as much as possible and requiring staff to wear personal protective equipment.
At the April 13 hearing, she said she agreed with the inmates, who are led by named plaintiff Anthony Swain, that an independent inspection of Metro West is needed and pressed county attorneys for information on the inmate population. The county attorneys said they would provide data on the ages, charges and medical diagnoses of about 700 inmates the county has deemed vulnerable to COVID-19, out of a total population of more than 1,800.
--Editing by Haylee Pearl.
Update: This story has been updated with more information on the early releases from the State Attorney's Office.
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