Eight months into the pandemic and four months after the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office received up to $15.6 million in COVID-19 relief funds, the county jail became the site of one of the state’s largest coronavirus outbreaks, with staff and inmates stating that they were not given adequate equipment to protect themselves.
The more than 1,200 inmates that pass through the jail on any given day were not given a mask until the week before last after the virus had infected hundreds of inmates and dozens of deputies. Before the week of Nov. 1, masks were only provided when moving throughout the jail.