One of the most visible and complex challenges facing the three candidates for La Plata County sheriff is how to manage increasing issues surrounding homelessness.
Challengers Charles Hamby, a Republican, and Dean Mize, unaffiliated, look to unseat Sheriff Sean Smith, a Democrat in his first term, this November.
Each candidate has different ideas about how to go forward.
The city of Durango and La Plata County had bans on camping on public lands, but in 2015, the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office started allowing homeless people to stay on county land near the Durango Tech Center, west of downtown Durango.
The decision was made, in part, after the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division weighed in on a case in Boise, Idaho, that said punishing someone for sleeping outside, when there’s no other available alternatives, such as a shelter or camp, was unconstitutional.
“If a person literally has nowhere else to go, then enforcement of the anti-camping ordinance against that person criminalizes her for being homeless,” the DOJ said.
With the city of Durango enforcing its no camping ban, Smith said it put La Plata County and the Sheriff’s Office in a predicament: If the county enforced the ban, it could face litigation.
There have been countless other court decisions that have reinforced the ruling that criminalizing someone for sleeping in public spaces when they have no other options is unconstitutional, Smith said.
Most recently, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided people cannot be prosecuted for sleeping outside if shelter access is lacking, ruling it would violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
“The 8th Amendment prohibits the imposition of criminal penalties for sitting, sleeping or lying outside on public property for homeless individuals who cannot obtain shelter,” Judge Marsha S. Berzon wrote for the court.
Colorado is in the 10th Circuit, but the ruling sets a strong precedent, Smith said. And, it’s a sign if the county were to enforce the no-camping ban, it could face litigation the county is destined to lose.
“I’d rather we not go to court and be told how to handle our own problem,” Smith said.
While there is no current litigation to this effect in the 10th Circuit, the American Civil Liberties Union has sent pointed messages to the city of Durango, telling it to stop enforcing the camping ban if homeless people have nowhere else to go.
The ACLU has not included the county in these letters, mainly because Smith has not enforced the county’s camping ban and has instituted temporary homeless camps.
“La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith recognized that the city had insufficient shelter space and that ticketing homeless people for camping when they had nowhere else to go was not only cruel, but also unconstitutional,” the ACLU wrote in its Aug. 24 letter to the city.
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