Huron Valley Prison mold lawsuit moves forward

Well, women locked up at Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti say they've been forced to live with mold so bad it's making them sick. Now, a federal appeals court says their lawsuit can move forward despite efforts by state corrections officials to block it. So who's responsible for keeping prisoners safe and what happens when the state is alleged to have failed at this task? Attorney Todd Flood and Detroit Ombudsman Sherry Getegna go join us now, and we thank you both for joining us here tonight on The Ten. This is an important topic. We've had both of you on The Pulse. We've had you on The Ten. And I want to say this on TV tonight. We're not going to let this go because this is too serious of an issue. The allegations are extremely serious. And the results of what we've seen perhaps happen here could be very dangerous when you look at what these prisoners are dealing with. Let's begin with you, Todd. Where does the litigation stand? What's new with this mold issue now coming to a head? Well, three conservative judges let this case go forward. Because basically they said, and I paraphrase in flood speak, they don't have to prove water's wet. The fact of the matter is that there's a violation. You can lock them up and punish them, but you can't make mold drip on them. The mold is coming from the ceilings. The mold is coming from the walls. It's just such a violation of the Eighth Amendment. So it's clear to me, in a conservative court, and I love the fact that it went through this process, and the fact of the matter is is you have an attorney general right now defending this which is sad where they don't somehow some way try to build a bridge because this is doing nothing but prolonging the fact that these women and so many different levels I mean not only the mold not only the body cameras in the strip searches not only the unbelievable statements and things they have to go through we have some women right now in the men's prison believe it or not the fact of the matter is there's an epidemic of mistreatment of these women in this prison, our only female prison in the state of Michigan. And so now you have the conservative justices, Sherry, saying, you know what, we're gonna take this to the test. We're gonna come out and tell you what we feel. We believe that this is worthy to be examined, to be looked at, to be adjudicated in some way. Is that a victory in some sort? It is a victory. I'm quite embarrassed. I'm embarrassed as a woman to have a governor who's a woman, who have an attorney general that's a woman, who are both Democrats, who in many instances are trying to hide behind qualified immunity. And I'm glad this conservative court struck this down. Listen, I just left from that celebration for our honorable Mayor Coleman Young. And the one thing that he stood for, Democrat or Republican, was justice for Detroit. Do you know how many African-Americans are unfairly and unjustly locked up in these prisons? We have 900 plus women who have claims that have been filed in this court in a class action lawsuit. They have been calling these security guards Sherwin-Williams. You have staff that work in Huron Valley that even have come to my page on social media and said that they were told to constantly paint over the mold. It is a shame that we have a governor and an attorney general that would hide behind or try to hide behind qualified immunity when these women are dying. Well, there's a sense, look, qualified immunity and legally speaking, if you wanna, as you say, put that ahead of you and hide behind it is one thing. But there's a humanity issue here that needs to be addressed. I think that's what's missing. We asked the governor's office and the MDOC for comment. The governor told me at Mackinac, I'm going to make sure that this is a transparent investigation. The MDOC simply came up with a statement. We said these families deserve more than a statement. They deserve a human being to come forth and say, here's where we stand. What do you want them to do, Todd? Be transparent. I just received correspondence that I shared with you today. correspondence that basically they want to stop and erase the the body cameras for the past year right they're going to start going over them why we need to have those body cameras we need to see what this place looked like we need to have this you know the fact of the matter is this you hit the nail on the head it's the mistreatment i understand you're being punished but you cannot tie somebody up to a pole in the sunlight that's common sense right you can't mistreat prisoners this is just unbelievable so the dignity part you got it the the fact of the matter is is that when you have qualified immunity common sense dictates the day if you're doing some discretionary job and you don't realize this is not an unreasonable act but everybody sees if that you have mold coming off the walls. It's unreasonable. So what do you, so now we know that the mold issue, this is, as you say, a small victory in that sense, that it can be examined in the right way. But what about the qualified immunity? Will the people in that prison and their families get justice when you have, as you say, the leadership that's protected by that qualified immunity? Will they get justice? No, they won't get justice. And what do I think? So what can you do? I want the governor to do what she promised at Mackinac. How many months ago was that? May. So the office of the ombudsman in the city of Detroit was established in 1974, again, by the late Coleman Alexander Young for the purpose of restoring public trust. I'm calling on the governor to restore public trust in the state of Michigan. The state is responsible for the condition and the lives of these women that are dying daily in Huron Valley. I serve in Huron Valley in the prison ministry from my church. So I've been in those prisons. But to have these women calling us constantly, we have an ombudsman that basically serves as a liaison between the legislature and the prisons. But there are no teeth and no accountability metrics that is in that position. We need to change that. But when you get a complaint from all of these prisoners, from staff persons who are mistreated once they blow the whistle on what's going on, at some point, where is the evidence of the complaints? How are they logging the complaints? How are families getting answers? How the data is being compiled is a critical piece of this. So we have a structural issue with how all of this is being handled. Obviously, there's a moral issue here. There's a bigger issue of how the structural- Rupert, you're being kind. It's not being handled. It's being hidden. I will say this. I will say this. We have a whistleblower, an actual guard that's there that has had to live in and be with the mold and the prisoners and is now ill. And she's being retaliated against, so just watch, stay tuned, and you're doing the right thing. Well, we're gonna keep bringing it up. And I wanna say one thing to the Michigan Department of Corrections, who put out a statement saying out of respect for the family, they're not going to come on camera and say anything. I say to the contrary, it is out of respect to the family that you should speak on camera. And we ask you to appear- That's an excuse, Heidi Washington needs to resign. The question we should be asking is which gubernatorial candidate is going to relieve Heidi Washington of her duties. We will make sure to ask the questions that need to be asked to these gubernatorial candidates. We also will have a word in with the governor, but we thank you Todd Flood and Sherry Gay Degnago for joining us here tonight on the- Happy birthday. Thank you. Happy birthday. Always a pleasure. Thank you very much. Happy birthday, my man. Appreciate you. Appreciate you both. Thank you.