Boulder County jail releases 90 amid coronavirus concerns; Weld County faces lawsuit for not
Amid concerns that COVID-19 could spread quickly through the Boulder County Jail population, the County released 90 non-violent offenders on March 24.
The District Attorney’s Office reviewed each individual case and released only those “who did not demonstrate a significant risk to community safety.”
“These are difficult times that require difficult choices,” the County announced in a statement. “It is a careful balancing of public safety, community health and the treatment and rights of those in the County Jail — and time is of the essence when it comes to the spread of this virus. An outbreak of the coronavirus in jail would spread fast and impact not only those behind bars, but jail staff, medical staff, their families and the wider community.”
Meanwhile, the ACLU and civil rights attorneys filed a lawsuit on April 8 against the Weld County Sheriff for not releasing people from its jail, despite the presence of COVID-19 among the jail population.
“We have written to Sheriff Reams; we have written to the Chief Judge in Weld County; and we have petitioned the Colorado Supreme Court,” said ACLU Legal Director Mark Silverstein in a statement. “But the recipients of these pleas did not respond with the actions that were urgently required to prevent the calamity now unfolding in the Weld County Jail — an outbreak with multiple confirmed cases of COVID-19. We are now asking the federal court to order the desperately needed protective measures to save lives.”
The lawsuit claims the Sheriff’s Office did not take adequate measure to protect people from the spread of COVID-19. The jail in Weld County is the sixth most populous jail in the state. Governor Jared Polis provided guidance to law enforcement to lower jail populations on March 24.
CU researchers develop over-the-counter COVID-19 test
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed technology that could help identify those infected with COVID-19 before any symptoms arise.
Nicholas Meyerson and Sara Sawyer, CU Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology scientists, have been researching ways to identify the body’s early immune response to infection for 10 years. When the coronavirus hit, they switched gears, developing SickStick to pinpoint “smoke signals” that could identify early stages of COVID-19.
“With most infectious diseases, by the time you develop symptoms you have already been contagious for days and out and about spreading it to people,” said Meyerson, in a press release. “Our device acts at the earliest stage of infection. It knows you’re sick before you do.”
“Antibodies don’t arise in your body until after the copy number of a pathogen has gotten very large,” Sawyer said. “They are the last chapter in the immunology textbook. We specialize in the first chapter — the smoke signals that infected cells send off to indicate a pathogen is present.”
The researchers are hoping to bring SickStick to market within six months — pending Food and Drug Administration approval — aided by $55,000 in prize money from winning the New Venture Challenge and a $126,000 grant from Venture Partners.
“I would be remiss not to call out the amazing biotech support network that CU Boulder and this community has offered us,” Sawyer said. “We are just university scientists who discovered we had our hands on something that can really matter. It’s remarkable how far we’ve come so fast.”
Federal court defers judgment on Boulder’s assault weapons ban
When the Boulder City Council approved an assault weapons ban in May 2018, the law was immediately challenged in both state and federal court by pro-Second Amendment groups and individuals. On Friday, April 10, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit deferred its judgement in the case, arguing that the Colorado Supreme Court needed to rule on whether or not state law supersedes the local ordinance. “If the state court were to conclude that the Colorado statutes preempt the Boulder ordinance, there would be no need for us to resolve the federal constitutional questions,” the federal court reasoned. Boulder maintains the ban is within its purview as a Home Rule city. The law bans the selling and possessing of assault weapons, defined as semi-automatic rifles with a pistol grip, folding stock or the ability to accept a detachable magazine. It also includes semi-automatic pistols and shotguns.
