EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. — A Colorado Springs family is speaking out and wanting answers as to how their loved one died while in custody at the Criminal Justice Center (CJC) in El Paso County.
FOX21 has reported on nine inmate deaths while in custody since March of 2021.
36-year-old William Johnson died from a seizure while sleeping in his cell on September 27, 2021. Now, his family wants to see policies change at the jail so something like this doesn’t happen to another family.
William’s father Keith received the tragic news on the phone.
“Can’t prepare yourself for that. You can’t. And I have to hang up that phone and then make a call to his mother and tell her I don’t have any idea what happened, but our son is dead,” Keith Johnson said.
William was in the CJC for a 60-day sentence for a DUI. According to the autopsy report, William died as a result of a seizure disorder which he had been prescribed medication.
“Listen, I believe my son may have had a problem,” Keith added. “Obviously, he was taking prescription medicines and driving. But, you know, he didn’t deserve to die. Come on, come on.”
According to a notice to seek monetary damages by the Johnson Family Attorney Kris Miller, William received under, over or no dosage on 13 days while in jail including several consecutive days immediately before his death. They believe the jail ignored William’s medical needs.
“I used to think, well, you’d be safe in there, that’s not the case with our local jail,” Keith said. “As we’re learning, that’s not the case. We need to take some action here to prevent this from happening with this kind of frequency.”
William’s sister Crystal Craig has created a Facebook group to show support to other families that have lost loved ones in the care of the El Paso County Jail.
“I wanted them to have a safe place to go, safe place to reach out to others and share their stories,” Craig said. “Just because they are inmates, does not make their life less valuable or worthy to live, they deserve the same care as everyone else.”
Miller plans to file a lawsuit against El Paso County Commissioner, El Paso County Sheriff, El Paso County Attorney’s Office, and Wellpath Counsel (the third-party company hired to provide medicine to inmates).
FOX21 did reach out to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office for a comment regarding the number of deaths at the jail, but haven’t heard back. Once the Sheriff’s Office has given a statement, this story will be updated.
Here’s the full list of inmate deaths since March of 2021:
33-year-old Travis Lowe, died March 29, 202131-year-old Justin Ferguson, died May 9, 202164-year-old Wayne Baca, died September 2, 202133-year-old Steven Thorne, died September 25, 202136-year-old William Johnson, died September 27, 202132-year-old Sean Williams, died February 15, 202241-year-old Laura Gibbs, died March 17, 202274-year-old Leory Eckhoff, died March 25, 2022Unidentified male inmate, died April 26, 2022
