Isaac N. v. Polis

Children’s Rights and its co-counsel partners filed a class action lawsuit alleging that Colorado is knowingly incarcerating children in highly restrictive detention facilities, often for weeks or months on end, in violation of their Constitutional and statutory rights. This is despite the fact that juvenile court judges have specifically found that these youth should be released to the community pending adjudication on the juvenile delinquency charges against them. 

Colorado Governor Jared Polis and Michelle Barnes, Executive Director of the Colorado Division of Human Services (CDHS) are named as defendants. Co- counsel organizations include Disability Law Colorado, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU of Colorado, and pro bono counsel Ropes & Gray LLP. 

The lawsuit asserts that CDHS, despite its own acknowledgements over decades, and repeated community calls for action, continues to let hundreds of young people who could be safely released to the community languish in confinement each year instead of providing placement and other services that can secure their release. 

Many of these children are locked up for minor charges solely because they are already in foster care, and the State has not found them a placement or appropriate services. In addition, the majority of children who could be safely released have disabilities, making it imperative they have access to therapeutic care in a non-segregated setting.

The complaint describes Colorado’s juvenile detention facilities as the functional equivalent of adult jails. They are locked and guarded at all times. Children are subjected to strip searches, physical restraints, and, according to state reports and independent press accounts, staff use excessive force to subdue them, which has led to incidents of serious bodily injury and lasting trauma.  

A vast body of research confirms that incarceration has uniquely harmful impacts on children. Colorado’s own statutes recognize the negative impacts of detention on the mental and physical well-being of children, including making it “more likely that the child or juvenile will reoffend.”