Updated February 3 On Feb. 2, a federal judge ordered state officials to offer COVID-19 vaccinations to all inmates in Oregon state prisons as soon as possible. The governor s office says it will comply adding prisoners to the teachers, healthcare workers and nursing home residents at the front of the vaccine line.
Maney v. Brown. The plaintiffs allege that the Oregon Department of Corrections willfully and wantonly ignored the public health threat caused by this global pandemic. The plaintiffs, represented by the prison rights group, the Oregon Justice Resource Center, sought to improve prison conditions amid rising COVID-19 cases, and to reduce the prison population.
Federal judge in Oregon orders state to vaccinate inmates along with correctional workers
As reported in this local press piece, A federal judge ordered Oregon officials late Tuesday to immediate offer state prison inmates COVID-19 vaccines. Here is more about this notable ruling:
U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman granted a temporary restraining order as part of a larger case by a group of prison inmates. They’ve criticized the state’s response to the pandemic inside prisons and argue it’s violated the U.S. Constitution. Beckerman’s ruling applies to more than 12,000 inmates who live in one of the state’s 14 prisons. “Defendants shall offer all [Adults in Custody] housed in [Oregon Department of Corrections] facilities, who have not been offered a COVID-19 vaccine, a COVID-19 vaccine,” she wrote..
Oregon won’t fight ruling, will start vaccinating 11,000 prisoners against COVID-19
Updated Feb 03, 2021;
Posted Feb 03, 2021
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Gov. Kate Brown’s office said Wednesday Oregon will soon begin offering COVID-19 vaccinations to as many as 11,000 inmates in the state’s prisons and that could delay health care workers and others in phase 1a from getting the vaccines.
A governor’s spokesman, however, said vaccinations of inmates won’t slow shots in the arms to teachers, who became eligible last week, or seniors, the oldest who have been promised access starting Monday.
The change in course came one day after U.S. Magistrate Stacie Beckerman ordered inoculations to immediately commence in response to disproportionately high rates of coronavirus spread and death in the state’s 14 prisons.
Oregon will begin vaccinating its inmate populations against COVID-19 after a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the state's prison population should be prioritized, Oregon Live reported.
In a first, a federal judge orders Oregon state prisons to vaccinate inmates.
The Oregon State Penitentiary, in Salem, Ore., where some inmates have received Covid-19 vaccines.Credit.Danielle Peterson/Statesman-Journal, via Associated Press
Feb. 3, 2021
A federal court judge in Oregon has ordered the state prison system to inoculate every inmate who wants to be vaccinated against Covid-19. The order, the first in the nation, comes as many states have declined to make vaccinating prisoners a priority, even though severe virus outbreaks inside prisons have been common.
The ruling, handed down Tuesday night by Stacie Beckerman, a federal magistrate judge, said the state’s 12,100 prison inmates should be vaccinated as soon as possible. It was not clear on Wednesday whether the state intended to appeal.