Attorneys for Cook County Jail detainees ask for records on COVID-19 testing

Advocates for Cook County Jail detainees are asking for the sheriff’s office to provide additional records to show that they are following a federal judge’s order to widely test inmates for coronavirus, including those who do not have symptoms.

Citing the most recent COVID-19-related detainee death — the seventh at the jail— advocates are questioning whether the sheriff’s office’s has the ability to meet U.S. Judge Matthew Kennelly’s previous order to enforce social distancing, test and protect those in custody.

In a response to the court-ordered report Sheriff Tom Dart’s lawyers released to Kennelly, attorneys for the detainees Wednesday asked the judge to consider beginning the process of convening a three-judge panel, which would weigh-in on the possible widespread release of older detainees and those with underlying medical conditions .

The attorneys also requested records from the sheriff’s office they said would shed more light on testing for coronavirus at the jail and social distancing procedures, writing that “the Report makes plain that the Sheriff’s Office has not achieved compliance, particularly with respect to coronavirus testing and social distancing.”

The lawyers for the detainees filed a class-action suit against Dart in March that sought to have elderly detainees and those who would be most seriously affected by COVID-19 released immediately.

Dart’s lawyer’s report to Kennelly included more than 200 pages of documentation and detailed the distribution of soap and cleansers, as well as nearly a dozen coronavirus-related disturbances inside the jail complex within the last month.

The report also expressed concerned that social distancing efforts would be nearly impossible if the jail’s population will rise in the coming warmer months, leading the attorneys for the detainees to raise concerns about the sheriff’s office’s ability to comply with the judge’s previous order, which included a mandate for single cells for most detainees and access to masks and other personal protective equipment.

Alexa Van Brunt, an attorney with Northwestern University’s MacArther Justice Center who is working on behalf of the detainees, said the advocates are particularly worried for “medically vulnerable” detainees who are receiving health care services and housed in the jail medical wing, where she said social distancing guidelines are not being followed.

The response to the sheriff’s report specifically cited Monday’s death of detainee William Sobczyk, who had been receiving treatment at the jail for cancer before he was diagnosed with a COIVID-19 infection.

Cook County sheriff’s office

Sobczyk, 53, of Arlington Heights, died from pneumonia due to the COIVD-19 infection, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Sobczyk has been held at the jail without bail since he was charged last year with aggravated battery and was due to have a hearing to review his bail Tuesday, according to court records.

Attorneys for the detainees noted that the sheriff’s office hadn’t released details about Sobczyk’s death earlier in the week, “raising questions about whether other detainees in custody have also died from the virus.”

Sheila Rivera, a 47-year-old Cook County correctional officer, also died after contracting COVID-19 in late April.