Facts

FCI Lompoc is a low security prison located in Santa Barbara County, California. USP Lompoc is located just down the road and houses medium security individuals. As of May 15, 2020, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had reported that 1,023 of the 2,680 individuals collectively incarcerated at the two Lompoc facilities have tested positive for COVID-19. On May 16, 2020, Yonnedil Carror Torres, Vincent Reed, Felix Samuel Garcia, Andre Brown, Shawn L. Fears, individually as prisoners incarcerated at Lompoc and on behalf of all others similarly situated, brought a class action against Louis Milusnic, in his capacity as Warden on Lompoc, and Michael Carvajal, in his capacity as Director of the Bureau of Prisons, for Eighth Amendment constitutional violations. On July 14, 2020, the court granted petitioners' motion for preliminary injunction and required respondents to, among other things, make "full and speedy use of their authority under the CARES Act and evaluate each class member's eligibility for home confinement which gives substantial weight to the inmate's risk factors for severe illness and death from COVID-19 based on age or Underlying Health Conditions." Petitioners twice successfully moved to enforce the preliminary injunction. The parties engaged in mediation from December 2020 to March 2021, and again in April 2022. In May 2022, the parties entered into a settlement agreement to settle all class claims.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS: Plaintiffs alleged that Respondents' failure to undertake reasonable preventive measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within Lompoc meant that the conditions at Lompoc were so degrading and inhumane that they violated the constitutional rights of the people in prison under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs further contended that defendants were deliberately indifferent to the suffering of the people in Lompoc, because they were aware or should have been aware of the dangerous conditions at the prison yet failed to act with reasonable care to mitigate these risks. In particular, plaintiff Torres alleged that after reporting COVID-19 symptoms, he was ignored for days and denied medical treatment until he went into respiratory shock and had to be put on a ventilator. Plaintiff Reed maintained that after testing positive, he was put in solitary confinement for days without medical care. Plaintiffs Garcia and Fears alleged that defendants arbitrarily forced them to spend some of their sentences in a hastily-converted warehouse rather than transfer them to home confinement under the CARES Act. Plaintiff Brown alleged that he could not get treatment for his prostate cancer due to the burden on Lompoc's medical resources from COVID-19-related care.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS: Defendants contended that the court lacked jurisdiction over plaintiffs' habeas claims because the complaints of confinement were outside the scope of a writ of habeas corpus. Further, defendants argued that the BOP has sole discretion over inmate placement decisions and that nothing in the CARES Act limited or proscribed the BOP's sole discretion as to inmate placement decisions, including as to transfers to home confinement. Defendants also contended that plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that their prison officials were deliberately indifferent to the prisoner's health and safety by consciously disregarding an excessive risk to an inmate's well-being or that the BOP deprived the inmates of the minimal civilized measure of life's necessities. In fact, defendants alleged that steps were taken to protect inmates from COVID-19, including conducting tests, providing inmates and staff personal protective equipment, separating inmates that tested positive, and providing inmates sanitation and cleaning supplies. Finally, defendants argued that plaintiffs did not demonstrate that they exhausted all available administrative remedies before pursuing their claims.

Result

The parties followed the terms of the preliminary injunction (as enforced) and agreed to settle their claims in May 2022. As part of the settlement, BOP and Lompoc administrators must: promptly review and transfer eligible class members to home confinement in accordance with the July 14 preliminary injunction orders, perform frequent COVID testing, perform daily symptoms checks for people placed in quarantine, screen class members working in communal spaces for symptoms, and ensure that those being forced to isolate in Special Housing Unit are treated as distinct from those being housed there for punitive reasons.