Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP Files Amicus Brief Fighting to Remedy Unconstitutional Conditions at the Cook County Jail

On Friday evening, Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP filed an amicus brief in the Seventh Circuit on behalf of leading prison and jail law scholars. The brief defends a preliminary injunction requiring the Sheriff of the Cook County Jail to cease practices that make social distancing impossible for hundreds of detainees. As the brief makes clear, these practices offend the Constitution and are not salvaged by their purported compliance with CDC guidelines (which themselves contain an irregular "feasibility carve-out" lacking any apparent basis in public health principles). 

Joshua Matz, Arjun Mody, and Adam Bresgi contributed to the brief. Read the brief in full here.