Lawsuit: Jail health company failed to keep woman with suicidal ideations alive

Heather Willard
·3 min read
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DENVER (KDVR) — A federal civil lawsuit filed Sunday in Denver alleges that a company providing medical and mental health care to inmates is responsible for a woman’s death in the El Paso County Jail.

According to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, an 18-year-old woman died by suicide inside the jail after Wellpath, a company that provides mental and physical health care to jail inmates, “callously ignored the almost constant pleas for help” from the inmate and “repeatedly removed” her from suicide watch.

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That woman, Dezaree Archuleta, died from suicide on June 9, 2022. Her family gathered outside the federal courthouse in Denver on Monday to announce the lawsuit.

“She deserved a chance at life,” Shelly Romero, Archuleta’s mother, said at a press conference on Monday. “She was 18 years old. She deserved some kind of chance, so any kind of justice — that’s what we’re looking for.”

The family of Dezaree Archuleta gathered outside the federal courthouse in Denver
The family of Dezaree Archuleta gathered outside the federal courthouse in Denver

Archuleta was originally booked into the jail on May 17, 2022. The lawsuit alleges near-daily discussions of Archuleta’s poor mental health, including her reports to officials that she was having suicidal ideations and command auditory hallucinations and exhibiting several incidents of self-harming behavior.

The lawsuit alleges this allowed her to “engage in repeated and horrific acts of self-harm throughout her incarceration.”

The lawsuit states that Archuleta had 16 incidents where she expressed suicidal thoughts and feelings. It also says the 18-year-old asked to speak with a psychiatrist and resume her medication, but that request was denied. Instead, a Wellpath official allegedly told Archuleta that the psychiatrist was impossible to reach by phone, so her psychotropic medications would not be filled while she was an inmate.

“Instead of providing Ms. Archuleta the help she so desperately needed and repeatedly requested, (the official) callously handed her a few pamphlets and told her to use her coping skills,” the lawsuit states. “He did not place her back on to suicide watch in order to keep her safe. Mere hours after (the official) ignored her cries for help, Ms. Archuleta engaged in another act of serious self-harm by punching herself in the face until she bled.”

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The lawsuit alleges that Wellpath bargained with the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center to ensure it would not be required to fill all positions for psychiatrists and psychiatric mid-levels “because of its intention to purposefully understaff the CJC.”

Wellpath contracts with numerous jails and prisons in the U.S. According to the lawsuit, before a company merger with Wellpath, Correct Care Solutions was facing 1,400 federal lawsuits. The lawsuit states that Wellpath and its predecessor companies were sued between 2014 and 2019 for causing more than 70 deaths.

Since Archuleta’s death, the El Paso County CJC has terminated its contract with Wellpath.

The suit is seeking a $1 million settlement for Archuleta’s estate. FOX31 reached out to Wellpath about the lawsuit but had not heard back as of late Monday afternoon.

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If you are thinking of hurting or killing yourself:
Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
Please get help immediately.

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