ACLU files Arizona suit over TB case

Tillie Fong, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 1, 2007 at midnight

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A Phoenix man with extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis has been treated inhumanely for the past nine months while quarantined in the jail ward of a hospital, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona claims in a lawsuit against Maricopa County authorities.

"He's not a criminal, but he's treated like a criminal," said Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona.

"There are cameras on his room 24 hours a day. He's subjected to strip searches. We think the county could make alternative accommodations for him while protecting the public."

Robert England, director of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, said the county has few options to house someone placed under legal isolation.

"We try to make it as comfortable as possible if someone is in involuntary isolation, although it has to be secure," he said.

Robert Daniels, 27, a dual citizen of Russia and the U.S., was placed under court-ordered quarantine in the jail ward at Maricopa Medical Center after he violated a public health order to wear a mask when he was in public.

He contracted tuberculosis while living in Moscow five or six years ago.

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