For months, Denver law enforcement has refused to address basic questions about the city’s jail.
A lawsuit filed in District Court on Monday promises to shake out some answers.
Such as how the city let innocent victims of mistaken identity officially disappear for days, even weeks, behind bars.
And why Denver has detained political protesters long after they posted bail.
And what headlines Denver should expect to make in August when scores of activists converge on a city with a mandate, it seems, to lock up protesters even for petty offenses.
These concerns prompted watchdogs in November to begin asking for policies at the downtown jail. Denver’s safety department refused, saying that releasing the manual “would be contrary to the public interest.”
How, exactly, the department has yet to explain.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado is suing Safety Manager Al LaCabe, arguing that “the public interest clearly compels public disclosure.”
The group wants to know whether problems stem from a lack of policies, deficient policies or a failure simply to follow its policies.
The Denver jail processes more than 47,000 people a year. Its goal, LaCabe has said, is to treat “all suspects with honesty, fairness and respect.”
Where was the honesty in the case of Muse Jama, a Metropolitan State College student, when he was locked up in September after being mistaken for somebody he is not?
Jama was booked under the other man’s name, making it impossible for his family to find him in jail. He was forced to answer to the wrong name and was held for a week without a court appearance. In a final flip of the bird, sheriff’s jailers returned $78 they took from Jama’s wallet in a check they made out in the wrong name.
Where was sheriff’s deputies’ respect for Jose Ibarra when they held him for 25 days despite his insistence that they had the wrong man?
They apparently wouldn’t take the trouble to compare the two men’s birthdates, addresses, license photos, mug shots or fingerprints. Instead, they told Ibarra’s pregnant wife that her husband was lying to her about his identity. His cash-strapped family finally had to pay the other man’s fine to free him.
And where was the fairness in October when sheriff’s deputies held Columbus Day protesters up to 12 hours after they posted bail for mere municipal-code violations?
The city has yet to explain such delays for a gaggle of only 82 activists. Questions linger about what kind of delays await a more unpredictable, larger swarm of protesters expected in the August heat during the Democratic National Convention.
LaCabe has stayed mostly silent about the string of snafus. He owes it to the people whom his staff wrongly imprisoned to finally release internal reviews of those screw-ups.
The mayor’s office said Monday that the department is pushing a “culture shift” in which deputies are urged to advocate for prisoners and double-check that they’re locking up the people judges have ordered locked up.
“We want to improve,” said mayoral chief of staff Kelly Brough on Monday, in the city’s first hint of contrition on the issue.
Mayor John Hickenlooper has made a point to avoid criticism recently by protecting his veneer of neutrality in the presidential race (let’s be clear, he’s really an Obama guy).
But any sniping that Denver’s mayor might have faced by voting as a superdelegate pales compared with the public lashing he will endure if his safety department continues locking up the wrong people and fumbling with its keys.
Susan Greene writes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach her at 303-954-1989 or greene@denverpost.com.
