Criminal justice advocates and lawyers for thousands of inmates in Arizona's prisons are asking the Arizona Department of Health Services to intervene to make sure staff and people who are incarcerated are protected from COVID-19.

A group composed of 11 organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Prison Law Office, American Friends Service Committee and the Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice, sent a letter to Health Services Director Dr. Cara Christ on Tuesday.

"The risk to the lives of the tens of thousands of people in Arizona prisons and public health of Arizona communities is clear and demands immediate action to protect those who live and work in these facilities, as well as the public at large," the group wrote.

The department announced Tuesday night that two inmates tested positive for COVID-19. Sixty inmates have been tested and 10 results were pending.

The state has repeatedly refused to provide any information to The Arizona Republic or answer questions about reports of several staff members testing positive.

The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry has faced continuous criticism over its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

After lawyers for inmates told a federal judge the department didn't have a clear plan in place to respond to the illness, it announced it would be giving inmates free soap and waiving the $4 health care fee.

After a whistleblower told Gov. Doug Ducey that staff weren't allowed to wear protective equipment, department Director David Shinn announced last week staff could wear "non-medical masks." Now, inmates are making masks for staff.

'Not responding adequately'

The group stated in its letter that evidence from sources and reports from the media have shown the department is "not responding adequately to this very serious crisis."

Attorneys for inmates visited the Florence facility in March and described it as having "unsanitary conditions," according to a letter they sent to Timothy Bojanowski, the lawyer for the Department of Corrections.

The lawyers stated in their letter to the department that they saw "crowded, filthy, unventilated dorms, tents, and Quonset huts housing elderly, frail men with chronic health conditions and multiple disabilities," when visiting the Florence prison.

Quonset huts, are lightweight, semicircular steel structures.

The department is not allowing inmates to use alcohol-based hand sanitizer, citing possible misuse and fire-setting risks.

The department has cut back on off-site work crews but allowed a group of female inmates at Hickman's Family Farms to continue working in order to help with food supply in the state.

In its letter to Christ, the group stated the Department of Corrections is not consistently and fully implementing the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The Department is not providing comprehensive information on a regular basis to people who are incarcerated, their families, the public, or even to state elected officials," the group wrote.

Caroline Isaacs, program director for American Friends Service Committee Arizona, told The Republic that the state has a responsibility to its inmates.

"They are literally life and death dependent on the state of Arizona and we are failing them," she said.

Protective gear for staff

In March, a whistleblower claimed Shinn was not allowing employees to wear masks and other protective equipment because it may scare the inmates.

"Understand that while the rest of the country is engaged in social distancing, (corrections) employees, as part of their job, must come into close personal contact with hundreds of inmates on a daily basis," Lewis prison Lt. Mark Hasz wrote in the March 26 complaint addressed to Ducey and Christ.

One Voice, a nationwide campaign to address the concerns of corrections officers, found in a survey that only 7% of officers believed their facility was very equipped to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.

Officers said in the survey, the top three things putting them at the greatest risk in their facility were lack of proactive testing, poor communication and lack of protective gear.

The department announced on Tuesday that inmates employed by Arizona Correctional Industries at the Perryville, Douglas and Florence complexes are making enough face masks so employees can have two each.

“This is a testament to the impact our ACI programs provide, and the contributions our inmate population makes in this time of need,” Shinn said in a statement.

So far, more than 8,000 masks have been made. According to a report by The Republic, nearly 2,000 inmates hold jobs through Arizona Correctional Industries and starting pay for those jobs ranges from $0.10 to $0.23 per hour.

Isaacs told The Republic that the recent announcement by the department highlights that it has not been fully implementing CDC's guidelines.

"Not even the guards would have these masks if it wasn't for certain whistleblowers. Union representatives were out there yelling and screaming and advocating for their welfare," she told The Republic. "Sadly, incarcerated people don't have that kind of agency."

Isaacs said it is a sad commentary on the criminal justice system that some lives are viewed as more valuable than others.

In an American Friends Service Committee Arizona survey, 64% of respondents said they received little to no information on how the department was addressing COVID-19 in the prison their loved one is in.

Have thoughts about health care access in Arizona's prisons? Reach criminal justice reporter Lauren Castle at Lauren.Castle@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Lauren_Castle.

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