The El Paso County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday agreed to pay $65,000 to settle a federal class-action lawsuit alleging that Sheriff Bill Elder’s “disordered, mismanaged” policies led to last
Seven months after COVID-19 sickened more than 1,000 people held at the El Paso County jail, the sheriff’s office wants to settle a class-action lawsuit that blamed “disordered, mismanaged” jail
With the purchase of every $7 phone call and overpriced pack of ramen noodles, people held at the El Paso County jail are chipping away at the jail’s mental health
With the purchase of every $7 phone call and overpriced pack of ramen noodles, people held at the El Paso County jail are chipping away at the jail’s mental health care bill a seemingly novel spin on cost-cutting that critics say is unethical and possibly illegal.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that the office dips into proceeds from jail commissary and phone services to defray expenses from its private medical services contract. Since 2019, the office has spent nearly $1.8 million from the so-called inmate commissary fund to pay down its health services contract, earmarking the spending for mental health, according to figures the office provided to The Gazette.
Amid a pandemic that’s roiled incarcerated populations across Colorado, people held at the El Paso County jail have lost an age-old comfort the ability to keep letters, cards and photos in their cells.
In a change that took effect in early April, the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center will no longer receive or distribute mail for inmates, the sheriff’s office has confirmed.
Instead, relatives and friends are directed to send all correspondence to a for-profit vendor in North Carolina, where it is scanned, uploaded to a server and made available to inmates digitally via tablet computers they check out during their free time. After 30 days, the original copies of their mail are destroyed unless the sender arranges for them to be returned, authorities say.