Corrections officials at a federal jail in Maryland allowed an “uncontrolled outbreak” of COVID-19 to infect more than 200 inmates and employees in less than a month, according to a class-action suit filed in Maryland District Court on Saturday.

The complaint, brought by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, says warden Calvin Wilson and Maryland Secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services Robert L. Green “fueled” the outbreak at the Chesapeake Detention Facility and “failed to take appropriate action in response.”

The Chesapeake Detention Facility opened in 1988 with single-person cells. It now squeezes two people into each cell, resulting in unsafe and overcrowded conditions, according to the suit. Officials have “ignored” CDC guidelines during the pandemic, it says, allowing residents who have tested positive for the virus to mingle with others, and failing to require mask-wearing or regular cleaning.

Detainees have also not been provided vaccines, despite Maryland identifying “high-risk incarcerated individuals” as a high priority for inoculation, the complaint says.

“The nearly 400 residents now detained at CDF continue to be denied even the minimal precautions necessary to mitigate against the risks of COVID,” says the suit, which accuses corrections officials of violating detainees’ Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

Some inmates who tested positive for the coronavirus were transferred to a dormitory-style facility in Baltimore called the Jail Industries Building, per the suit, which says inmates at the facility live in cold temperatures with little medical treatment.

“This facility, which is best described as a broken-down, pest-plagued warehouse, would be an inhumane detention space for healthy inmates,” the lawsuit says. “For individuals who have already tested positive for a potentially deadly virus, it is nothing short of horrifying.”

Mark Vernarelli, a spokesperson for Maryland’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, tells WAMU/DCist that CDF “follows strict health-department COVID guidelines and protocols and is subject to regular compliance audits.”

The department is “constantly testing, utilizing quarantine and isolation housing, and remaining nimble in modifying inmate movement to prevent and mitigate potential spread,” Vernarelli added. “Isolation and quarantine practices are in place.”

A coronavirus outbreak at the facility forced officials to lock it down earlier this year, the Baltimore Sun reported.

CDF houses detainees sentenced in federal criminal cases. Since 2010, the federal government has sent federal detainees awaiting trial to the prison.

Plaintiffs in the suit are calling for the lockup to improve its health and safety practices to prevent further spread. Some plaintiffs are also seeking a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of residents “whose age or underlying medical conditions make them particularly vulnerable to severe illness and death” from the virus.

“This outbreak is a tragedy. It was entirely foreseeable, given the failure of Defendants to act, and it was preventable. This outbreak will recur absent intervention from this Court,” the suit says.

More than 4,000 residents of DPSCS facilities in Maryland have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to state data. Twenty two inmates have died from the illness.