WELD COUNTY, Colo. — A federal judge on Monday ruled that the Weld County Jail's handling of COVID-19 violated inmates' rights and ordered Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams to provide special protections to medically vulnerable inmates incarcerated in the jail.
"The record indicates that defendant (Reams) has failed to take adequate measures to protect members of the plaintiff class from COVID-19 given that they face a heightened risk of serious illness or death from the virus," the order from Chief Judge Philip A. Brimmer reads. "Accordingly, plaintiffs’ conditions of confinement violate the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, and plaintiffs are entitled to a limited preliminary injunction to ameliorate those conditions."
As of April 29, 22 inmates had been tested for COVID-19, with 10 inmates testing positive. In addition, 17 jail staff members had tested positive for COVID-19.
Seven medically vulnerable people at the jail initiated the lawsuit and were represented by several civil rights attorneys including attorneys from American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Claims of unconstitutional conditions of confinement were filed against Reams in his official capacity as the Weld County Sheriff.
The order says the plaintiffs allege that they are at high-risk of suffering serious medical complications or death should they contract COVID-19 due to either age, serious underlying health conditions, or both. Some plaintiffs are no longer incarcerated in the jail
As of April 29, the jail’s population had been reduced to 478 inmates due to various depopulation efforts by the Sheriff’s Office and other entities in Weld County due to the pandemic, the order says.
The order says Reams, based on advice from the Weld County Health Department, has been treating portions of the jail as a “family unit.” This concept is based on the notion that individuals in households are not expected to maintain social distancing from other members of the household.
The jail employs professional janitorial staff that does some cleaning in the jail, but certain trustee inmates are responsible for cleaning each pod’s common area during the day and inmates are responsible for cleaning the communal bathrooms themselves, the order says.
The order also highlights a shortage of masks and says at least two people testified about having to use masks for up to 10 days and other inmates not wearing masks because there were no replacements for torn or broken masks.
Reams argued the lawsuit was a politically motivated attack. He said his department took 81 steps to prevent an outbreak including ordering more hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies as well as reducing the jail's population.
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By 5 p.m. May 18, Reams is ordered to compile a list of medically vulnerable inmates at the jail who have any of the following conditions:
- 65 years and older
- chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma
- serious heart conditions
- immunocompromised
- severe obesity
- diabetes
- chronic kidney disease and are undergoing dialysis
- liver disease
By 5 p.m. May 21 Reams is ordered to institute the following policies or procedures in the Weld County Jail:
- A policy ensuring that medically vulnerable inmates are “socially distanced” from other inmates housed in the Jail. If social distancing is effectively impossible for some or all of the medically vulnerable inmates in the Jail, such policy may be supplemented by housing medically vulnerable inmates together in one or more pods.
- A procedure, as part of the intake of new inmates into the Jail, for medically vulnerable inmates to be single-celled or otherwise socially distanced, to the maximum extent possible considering the Jail’s physical layout and classification needs, while housed in the transition unit.
- A policy of enhanced sanitation procedures in areas where medically vulnerable inmates are housed.
- A plan to obtain a sufficient number or type of masks so that inmates do not need to wear them for more than their intended duration or so that inmates may be able to clean them.
- A policy providing for increased monitoring of medically vulnerable inmates for symptoms of COVID-19.
- File a report with the Court, identifying what new policies have been instituted in accordance with this order. Defendant shall explain in such report what steps the Jail has taken to acquire an adequate mask supply for inmates housed in the Jail. It is further
“Weld County's foot-dragging through March led to its jail being the first one in Colorado to have an outbreak,” said Dan. Williams, of Hutchinson, Black and Cook, who led the ACLU’s portion of the litigation team. “Weld County’s lawyer argued that the judge should excuse the Sheriff’s failure to take COVID-19 more seriously because there had ‘only been one death.’ Today's order makes clear that when it comes to COVID-19, half measures don't cut it. Jails need to take aggressive measures to keep medically vulnerable people safe.”
ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Mark Silverstein said, “This ruling should serve as a warning to sheriffs around the state: the Constitution requires that you take extraordinary measures to protect the persons in your jails who are especially medically vulnerable to COVID-19. Sheriffs must identify the high-risk persons in their jail; they must ensure physical distancing and house vulnerable people in single cells as much as possible. To meet these obligations, we urge sheriffs to work closely with judges, district attorneys and public defenders to keep jail populations down and avoid incarceration altogether for medically vulnerable people who do not pose a public safety risk.”
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