Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today filed a motion to stay with the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, urging the court to block a lower court’s order that prioritized the demands of prison inmates over the safety of medical professionals. The district court’s injunction imposes limits on the transfer of inmates, requires unrestricted access to face masks, hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies for each inmate, and imposes a plan for testing every single inmate for COVID-19.
“Texas must continue to support those on the frontline of the battle against COVID-19. In the midst of nationwide shortages, medical professionals and those actually suffering from this health crisis are in desperate need of personal protective equipment, supplies and testing kits,” said Attorney General Paxton. “It is absurd to prioritize inmates’ health concerns over those of hardworking medical professionals and demand unreasonable expansion of the resources and processes already implemented by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). The district court has no authority to overrule Texas’s decisions about how to manage its scarce resources.”
The TDCJ has already implemented several measures to diligently prevent the spread of COVID-19, including limiting the number of inmates in gathering areas, enforcing social distancing, reducing traffic in and out of the facility, frequently cleaning surfaces with bleach-based products, and establishing screening measures to identify and isolate inmates suffering from COVID-19 symptoms.
Read a copy of the motion here.
For information on the spread or treatment of Coronavirus (COVID-19), please visit the Texas Department of State Health Services website.