Health |

Cook County sheriff wins partial appeal victory over COVID-19 order covering jail conditions

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart does not have to comply — at least for now — with a portion of a preliminary injunction precluding group housing or double-celling at the county jail due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

Dart had asked the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to stay the entire injunction order, which also includes mandates to increase testing and social distancing at the jail, while his appeal is pending before the court.

In its one-page order Friday, the appellate panel narrowly granted the request, saying the sheriff does not have to comply with the portion of the injunction “precluding group housing or double celling of detained persons.” The remainder of the motion to stay was denied.

The injunction was handed down in April by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in an ongoing lawsuit filed by the Loevy and Loevy law firm and the MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University alleging Dart failed to stop a “rapidly unfolding public health disaster” at the jail, which at the time had been identified as one of the nation’s leading hot spots for coronavirus infections.

Dart’s office has vehemently defended its response to the pandemic, saying it proactively instituted sanitation and social distancing measures and worked with stakeholders to sharply reduce the jail’s population.

In appealing the injunction last month, lawyers for the sheriff pointed to a recent ruling in Alabama that overturned a similar injunction, saying it placed the district judge in the role of “super-warden.”

“The jail simply cannot operate under threat of contempt and disruption when so many resources have been invested to protect detainees — as much as is structurally and operationally possible, and well beyond what is objectively reasonable,” the sheriff’s filing stated.

Meanwhile, efforts to contain the virus continue at the jail, which currently houses about 4,500 inmates. As of Friday, seven detainees have died after contracting COVID-19 at the jail, though that number has remained steady for weeks.

Only 27 inmates currently have the virus, and none are hospitalized. More than 500 others tested positive and have since recovered, according to the sheriff.