The U.S. Supreme Court is declining to order state officials to improve pandemic safety measures at a southeast Texas prison. Twenty inmates at the Wallace Pack Unit near Navasota have died of the coronavirus. The unit houses elderly and medically at-risk inmates. A trial judge in September ordered measures such as masks, distancing, and disinfecting. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the judge's order last month until a court case starts in December. Two inmates at the unit asked the high court to reinstate the judge's order, but the Supreme Court on Monday declined to intervene.
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