By Nathan Hale

Law360 (April 28, 2020, 6:49 PM EDT) -- Testifying Tuesday in a federal case brought by Miami-Dade County inmates seeking early release because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a Florida state judge disputed their previous characterization of the state's court review process as "toothless," pointing to the release of as many as a thousand inmates in the past six weeks.

Circuit Judge Nushin G. Sayfie, who oversees Miami-Dade County's criminal courts, said she found it "a little offensive" when a county attorney asked her about the "toothless" description made at an earlier hearing, adding that court staff and judges have been working tirelessly to keep the courts operating, with release requests and related proceedings their main focus.

"I would say it's been not only a priority, it's been our main focus since March 9," Judge Sayfie said of inmate release. "We always consider the safety of the public, but we had to be proactive given what was coming down the pike."

Judge Sayfie said she took action early, before schools had closed and "stay at home" orders were issued, and that the courts worked with the state attorney's office, the public defenders office and other defense attorneys to prioritize reviewing motions for early and pretrial release as well as pleas that would get people out.

The county called Judge Sayfie as a witness as U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams weighs the inmates' bid for a preliminary injunction that could mandate the county take more steps to reduce the spread of the disease at its Metro West Detention Center, including more aggressive efforts to depopulate the facility.

During the telephone hearing, Judge Sayfie detailed efforts by the criminal division, which she noted still relies on paper documents in its operations, to meet her stated goal of trying to meet 100% of demand despite the public health crisis. Over the past six weeks, the court has managed to get three courtrooms up and running along with videoconferencing equipment in the county jails to enable inmates to appear remotely for hearings.

In earlier filings in the case, the county has said that from March 12 through April 12, more than 640 inmates were released from Metro West to early sentence release, pretrial release or house arrest. That brought the facility's inmate population to 1,560, which represented 70% capacity, a low not reached in recent memory.

In their April 5 class action complaint, the Metro West inmates said the county has violated their rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments by "needlessly" exposing them to COVID-19, and they requested the release of a medically vulnerable subclass pursuant to a writ of habeas corpus.

The county has argued that the inmates cannot prove a necessary element of "deliberate indifference" to support their claim, so their motion for a preliminary injunction must be denied for failure to show a likelihood of succeeding on the merits.

Tuesday's hearing grew contentious at times during the plaintiffs' cross examination as attorney Alec Karakatsanis of Civil Rights Corps pressed Judge Sayfie on whether some judges might be repeatedly denying inmates' release motions without a hearing or waiting several weeks to set hearings.

The judge said she has heard of some motions being denied without hearings, but added that it sounded as if some of the inmates' information is inaccurate. She said she had not heard such complaints from Miami-Dade public defender Carlos Martinez, with whom she is in daily contact, or from other attorneys.

She also pointed out that some inmates, such as violent felony offenders, are not entitled to bond hearings, and that the circuit courts cannot change that without instructions from higher courts or the state legislature.

County attorneys objected when Karakatsanis asked Judge Sayfie if she believes Metro West poses a "clear and present danger" to inmates who are medically vulnerable, arguing that there already has been expert medical testimony on the subject. But Karakatsanis pushed back, saying he thought the proceedings were intended to determine whether the state was dealing with the crisis adequately.

"We have been hyperfocused on release because of the health risk in the jail," Judge Sayfie testified.

Judge Sayfie also said she has received a list the county compiled of medically vulnerable inmates in the county jails, but said in response to another question from Karakatsanis that she would not commit to ordering the court to go through that list and immediately put those cases on its calendar, saying it is important to remember the courts' limited role in this situation.

"For us to sua sponte go through a list and put people on a calendar, I believe that is dangerously close to getting out of our lane," she said. "We'll consider what's put in front of us."

At a hearing on Monday, Judge Williams added 48 hours to a temporary restraining order requiring the county to take certain steps at Metro West, such as implementing social distancing as much as possible and providing inmates with soap and other personal hygiene items, while she considers the preliminary injunction motion.

The judge said she needed more time to digest the information before her, including figures filed by the county Saturday that showed 159 inmates and 16 staff members had tested positive at Metro West as of April 22, a significant jump from the 31 inmates and 14 staff reported three days earlier.

Counsel for both sides did not immediately respond to requests for comment after Tuesday's hearing.

The inmates are represented by Alexandria Twinem, Katherine Hubbard and Alec Karakatsanis of Civil Rights Corps, Katherine Alena Sanoja and Rodney Quinn Smith II of GST LLP, Meena Jagannath of Community Justice Project Inc., Thomas B. Harvey and Tiffany Yang of Advancement Project, and Lida Rodriguez-Taseff of DLA Piper.

Miami-Dade County is represented by Erica Sunny Shultz Zaron, Bernard Pastor and Ezra Saul Greenberg of the Miami-Dade County Attorney's Office.

The case is Swain et al. v. Junior et al., case number 1:20-cv-21457, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

--Editing by Adam LoBelia.

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