DOJ investigating whether Colorado prisons and youth detention centers violate inmates' rights

Sam Tabachnik, The Denver Post on Dec 8, 2025

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The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether Colorado prisons are violating the constitutional rights of the state’s adult inmates and youth detainees through excessive force, inadequate medical care and nutrition, and policies surrounding the housing of transgender offenders, the federal agency announced Monday.

The Trump administration’s probe will examine “policies and practices” within the Colorado Department of Corrections and Division of Youth Services “to ensure that DOC inmates and youths in the custody of DYS are being afforded their rights under the U.S. Constitution and federal law,” the Justice Department said in a news release.

“The Constitution protects every American, whether they are a young person confined in a juvenile facility or an elderly person confined to a prison,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement. “We are committed to upholding our federal civil rights laws so that no one is subject to unconstitutional mistreatment when held in state custody.”

The Justice Department, in a letter to Gov. Jared Polis dated Monday, said the investigation will center on whether prisoners in the Department of Corrections’ 21 facilities are being provided adequate medical care and safe and sanitary conditions.

Investigators will also seek to determine whether Colorado fails to protect youth in the state’s 12 detention and confinement centers from excessive force and fails to provide them with adequate nutrition.

Finally, the probe will take aim at the state’s policy surrounding the incarceration of transgender inmates, investigating whether the Department of Corrections “violates prisoners’ and detainees’ right to free exercise of religion by housing biological males in units designated for females,” the agency said in its letter to the governor.

A Polis spokesperson could not be reached immediately for comment.

The Justice Department’s announcement comes on the heels of Colorado officials denying President Donald Trump’s request to move former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters from a state facility to a federal prison. A federal court on Monday denied Peters’ latest request to leave prison. She’s serving a nine-year sentence on election-related charges.

Trump has repeatedly called for Peters’ release, and a senior Justice Department official has said he’s working to free her. After Colorado officials rejected the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ transfer request last month, the president called Polis a “sleazebag” and said Peters had been “unfairly convicted.”

Peters’ attorneys, in court filings, have said her health has declined during her time in the Colorado prison. It’s not clear whether the Justice Department’s focus on medical care in Colorado prisons is related to Peters; she is not mentioned in the agency’s letter to Polis or its news release announcing the probe.

The government’s investigation also follows The Denver Post’s reporting about the conditions inside the state’s juvenile detention facilities.

Last month, 10 parents told The Post that their kids were losing concerning amounts of weight at the Youthful Offender System facility in Pueblo due to a lack of food. One individual, a 22-year-old, was hospitalized after going into renal failure due to malnourishment, his family said.

The allegations prompted state correctional staff to change inmate privileges concerning the purchase of food.

In March, The Post found internal, nonpublic critical incident reports showed rampant allegations of excessive force by staff members at the state’s youth detention and commitment facilities, serious injuries sustained by teens while being physically restrained, a litany of illicit drugs entering secure facilities, and several allegations of staff members engaging in sexual relationships with youth in their care.

The Division of Youth Services in August removed all youth serving sentences at the Lookout Mountain Youth Services Center in Golden over what staff and advocates called deteriorating safety conditions.

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