Lawsuit: Flint water crisis hit jail inmates especially hard

Paul Egan | Detroit Free Press

The poisoning of Flint’s drinking water supply was especially harmful for inmates housed there in the county jail, a new lawsuit alleges.

The federal suit, filed Monday on behalf of more than 90 former prisoners in the Genesee County Jail in Flint, alleges prisoners were forced to continue drinking tap water even after officials knew about the lead contamination.

The suit also alleges bottled water was withheld from inmates even when brought to the jail by concerned family members and other donors, that when bottled water was made available it was rationed in insufficient quantities, and that the jail instead charged prisoners a premium to buy bottled water from the commissary.

Because they were jailed, “plaintiffs could not travel to an area and/or municipality which had uncontaminated water,” couldn’t install filters on their jail water taps or drink bottled water, and “were completely at the mercy” of the county sheriff and jail officials, the suit alleges.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are Genesee County, Sheriff Robert Pickell, and Capt. Jason Gould, identified as the jail administrator at the time of the water contamination.

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The suit, assigned to U.S. District Judge Paul Borman, alleges civil conspiracy and violation of the former inmates' constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment.

Pickell said Tuesday he had not yet been served with the lawsuit and couldn't comment until he read it and discussed it with county attorneys. However, "just because it's being alleged doesn't make it true," he said.

Flint's drinking water became contaminated with lead in April 2014 after a state-appointed emergency manager, in a cost-saving move, ordered a switch from Lake Huron water supplied by the City of Detroit to Flint River water treated at the city's water treatment plant.

State Department of Environmental Quality officials have acknowledged they failed to require the addition of corrosion control chemicals in the treatment process and the corrosive water caused toxic lead to leach from water pipe joints and fixtures, into the water supply.

After months of denial from state officials, Gov. Rick Snyder acknowledged the lead poisoning in October 2015. Genesee County declared a state of emergency in early January 2016.

"Because plaintiffs ... were incarcerated and could not access clean water in any way, defendants ... subjected plaintiffs to a special danger as distinguished from the public at large," which had free water filters and bottled water made available by the state, the lawsuit alleges.

"With full knowledge that the water in the Genesee County Jail was contaminated, defendants ... forced plaintiffs to continue drinking the contaminated water."

Some of the inmates were pregnant, putting them and their unborn children at heightened risk, the suit says.

Many inmates arranged for loved ones to deliver bottled water to the jail, but jail officials "prohibited plaintiffs from accepting the deliveries," the suit alleges.

Inmates were also lied to — told that the jail had switched back to Detroit water long before that happened, the suit alleges.

When the state delivered bottled water to the jail, officials failed to deliver it to inmates in a timely manner and then rationed it to prisoners at two half-liter bottles per day, according to the lawsuit.

The jail eventually began selling bottled water through the commissary at premium prices, but for inmates "who could not afford the water, they were given no option but to continue drinking contaminated water."

The suit was filed by Southfield attorney Solomon Radner, along with attorneys from New York and Philadelphia.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.