Ryan Partridge, a former inmate at the Boulder County jail, has settled a federal civil rights lawsuit against former Sheriff Joe Pelle and Boulder County for a total of $2.55 million, according to Partridge’s attorney.
Two settlements have been reached by Partridge and the county. The first is for $325,000 for a jail employee’s repetitive use of excessive force on Partridge and the second for $2.225 million for the jail employee’s deliberate indifference to Partridge’s serious psychiatric needs, attorney David Lane said.
Partridge filed a federal court complaint in 2017 claiming that jail staff acted “willfully” and with “deliberate indifference” in not treating Partridge for psychosis. The complaint states that Partridge attempted suicide multiple times while in the jail and suffered from multiple self-inflicted injuries, including permanent blindness from attempts to gouge out his eyes and broken teeth from banging his head on a toilet.
“I hope the people of Boulder wake up to the fact that their jail conditions are frequently not humane and this is going to cost Boulder over $2.5 million dollars,” Lane told the Daily Camera. “The citizens of Boulder should be outraged and concerned about the lack of basic health care and human decency in the Boulder County Jail.”
Along with Pelle, 21 other defendants were cited in the lawsuit, including current sheriff Division Chief Jeff Goetz.
“The sheriff does not believe any of the staff involved in the incident were at fault or violated the law,” sheriff’s office spokeswoman Carrie Haverfield said in a statement. “Nonetheless, it is our hope that the settlement will provide some closure for Mr. Partridge, his family and the sheriff’s office employees who were impacted by the tragic events in which Mr. Partridge harmed himself during a mental health crisis he experienced in the jail.”
The complaint stated that Partridge had a history of refusing to take any anti-psychotic medication and jail staff never attempted to obtain a court order which would have permitted them to give Partridge anti-psychotic medications. The complaint also said the court never attempted to forcibly medicate him on an emergency basis despite repeated efforts to inflict “grievous” harm upon himself.
Haverfield said under state law, jail medical staff are prohibited from involuntarily administering psychotropic medications to inmates who have been prescribed, but decide to discontinue, these medications, even when inmates are experiencing extreme conditions.
“The jail employs a highly qualified medical team that provides medical and mental health treatment to inmates, and it has protocols aimed at preventing at-risk inmates from causing self-harm,” Haverfield said. “However, the jail cannot offer the same level or scope of treatment as a hospital.”
Haverfield said during the time of Partridge’s custody in jail, he was under a court order to receive mental health services at the state hospital in Pueblo. Sheriff’s office employees made multiple attempts to get him to a facility that could provide him with a high level of mental health treatment, according to Haverfield.
A backlog due to a lack of staffing at state hospitals has led to a delay in getting inmates treatment and evaluation. The Boulder County jail now has a mental-health-specific module that hosts the RISE program, a jail-based competency restoration program created in partnership with the Colorado Department of Human Services.
Haverfield added that the jail had advocated for Senate Bill 18-263, which would have created a pilot program to allow for court approval or treatment medications to be administered in the jail, but the bill failed.
Haverfield said the office used funds from the county’s insurance carrier to reach the settlement.
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