Inmates, ACLU File Lawsuit Against El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder After COVID Outbreak In Jail
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - Inmates at the El Paso County Jail and the ACLU of Colorado have filed a lawsuit against the sheriff, alleging their lives were unnecessarily put at risk during the pandemic.
More than 1,000 inmates have tested positive at the jail, according to state data, making it one of the largest outbreaks in the state.
The lawsuit against Sheriff Bill Elder is based on hundreds of letters and dozens of interviews with inmates at the jail. It was filed by the ACLU and three private attorneys in federal court on Sunday.
This is the second lawsuit of its kind the ACLU of Colorado has filed this year. The first one in Weld County resulted in a judge ordering the sheriff to provide masks and better protections to inmates. Attorneys are hoping for a similar outcome in El Paso County.
From late October to early November, the coronavirus's spread in the El Paso County Jail was quick and indiscriminate. By Nov. 8, 859 inmates had tested positive, according to the department's data.
"The jail had 1,200 prisoners, so more than two-thirds of the jail population tested positive," said Mark Silverstein, legal director at the ACLU of Colorado.
Silverstein said court intervention is necessary to protect further harm to inmates, staff, and the community.
"It's not just the prisoners and staff that are at risk because the staff go home," he said. "They bring this to the community."
One of six inmates listed as a plaintiff in the suit was 3 months pregnant during the outbreak and suffers from severe asthma. In a written declaration of her personal experience, she describes a time when seven of the 10 people in her bay were COVID positive and she was "sleeping within a few feet" of them. Other inmates described failures in quarantining and medical care for people who got sick.
"Prisoners who tested positive and prisoners who started experiencing the symptoms of COVID-19 were not monitored and treated by the medical staff," Silverstein said.
Inmates also claim the jail didn't provide them masks until early November, and those who made their own, sometimes with bedsheets or underwear, risked being reprimanded.
At the same time, the office received more than $15 million in money from the CARES Act, which attorneys say was spent on renovating the staff locker room and remodeling offices.
"Of course, Sheriff Elder knew that masks are a necessary preventive measure," Silverstein said. "How this could have happened that masks were not only not given to prisoners, but masks were also prohibited, I don't know the answer to that."
The spokesperson for the sheriff said the department doesn't comment on pending litigation. On its COVID response webpage, the department says it has worked to dramatically decrease the jail population and identify at-risk inmates based on CDC and public health recommendations.
Attorneys are asking for an expedited hearing and court order that requires Elder to comply with COVID-19 public health guidelines, provide adequate protection from the virus and implement proper monitoring and treatment for persons who test positive. According to Silverstein, that includes providing at least two cloth masks to each inmate.
