E.L. v. Claps
Children in Adams County, Colorado, have been denied the opportunity to see, touch, and hug their incarcerated parents, in violation of their fundamental right to familial association under the Colorado Constitution. For nearly two decades, the County has banned all in-person visitation at its jail, conspiring with private telecommunications companies to replace contact visits with expensive, for-profit video and phone calls.
As a result, children have had no meaningful way to maintain their parent–child relationships, often for years, even while many of their parents are detained pretrial and are legally presumed innocent. Families report deep emotional harm from the inability to visit in person, and many face significant financial strain as they pay per-minute fees simply to stay in touch with their loved ones. These financial burdens fall disproportionately on low-income, Black, and brown families.
The National Center for Youth Law joins with co-counsel Public Justice, Civil Rights Corps, Maxted Law, Spero Justice Center, and Singleton Schreiber in representing children and families in this action, the third case filed under the national Right 2 Hug project. It seeks to end Adams County’s unlawful and profit-driven visitation ban by restoring in-person, contact visitation between children and their parents.