By Nathan Clark
mlive.com
WASHTENAW COUNTY, Mich. — Prison officials accused in a lawsuit of failing to control a scabies infestation inside Michigan’s only prison for women have been granted immunity by the court.
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling March 26 granting Michigan Department of Corrections officials qualified immunity in the 2019 civil case filed by four female prisoners against the prison system.
Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that protects police and public officials from litigation while lawfully performing their duties.
The ruling overturned a prior ruling in U.S. District Court Eastern District of Michigan which denied MDOC’s motion for qualified immunity in May 2024, court records show.
The appellate court returned the case to the district court where the claims filed against MDOC will be dismissed, records show.
“Department officials work every day to ensure a consistent community standard of care to those living in our facilities through the use of subject matter experts and qualified healthcare staff,” MDOC Director Heidi E. Washington said. “We appreciate the court’s attention to this matter.”
Channing Robinson, one of several attorneys representing the women, said she and her fellow attorneys are disappointed in the outcome and are looking into other potential legal options in the case.
“Our focus remains on obtaining justice for the women impacted by (the prison’s) years-long scabies outbreak who endured years of that disgusting, painful disease despite repeatedly alerting the defendants to the condition and the circumstances that allowed the disease to flourish and cycle through the facility,” she said.
Litigation in the lawsuit is ongoing against the prison’s former healthcare provider, Corizon Health Services, which were not granted immunity, according to the court order.
In April 2019, four current and former prisoners incarcerated at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility located outside Ann Arbor , filed a lawsuit claiming the prison system violated their Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment when MDOC failed to control a scabies outbreak, according to the lawsuit.
The appellate court concluded that existing precedent did not clearly establish that non-treating MDOC officials violated the Eighth Amendment, stating prison officials relied on medical providers’ judgments and were not in a position to second-guess care decisions and disease-control measures made by medical professionals, according to the appellate court ruling.
Judge Helen White disagreed with the majority opinion and wrote a dissenting opinion finding the prisoners made a clear Eighth Amendment claim against prison officials highlighting the prison’s awareness of the outbreak and its scale, the ruling states.
White argued it was premature to grant qualified immunity in the case.
Prisoners Rebeeca Smith, Machelle Pearson, Maria Sheldon and Rachell Garwood each reported developing severe rashes starting around 2017 while incarcerated, the lawsuit states.
The women, along with other unnamed prisoners, stated they complained about the rashes, but were denied adequate testing and treatment, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit claims MDOC didn’t publicly acknowledge an issue with the parasitic mite until 2019 when the facility temporarily closed to visitors.
The closure came after 39 prisoners were found to have the infestation.
Prison officials initially ruled scabies out through testing and dermatologist evaluations in February and March 2018, court records show.
A turning point came when Dr. Walter Barkey, an outside dermatologist, examined inmates, and found live mites through skin scrapings and diagnosed the prisoners with scabies, records show.
By December of 2018, about 10% of the prison’s population had tested positive for scabies, the lawsuit states.
The outbreak was not fully eradicated, continuing into late 2019, just months before the COVID-19 pandemic.
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March 25, 2026 03:14 PM
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