Denver Filmmaker and Physician Dr. James Ehrlich Calls on Governor Polis to Test and Release Prison Inmates for Covid-19

DENVER, June 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Colorado's Governor Jared Polis and all governors who have state prisons violating the civil rights of inmates will be under heavy scrutiny in a series of documentary films to begin shooting this summer, according to long-time Colorado physician and screenwriter, Dr. James Ehrlich, president of Monitored Telemedicine, Inc.

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Dr. James Ehrlich

In addition to the series of shorter documentaries, a "high budget" motion picture "Who Matters in Colorado" will start filming April 2021 in Jefferson County and Canon City. The film has a release date in 2022. It will profile an inmate David Bunn, age 60, and a colleague of Dr. Ehrlich while they were both healthcare teammates at Denver's Rose Medical Center in the 1980s.

Bunn, one of the nation's premier experts on ventilator equipment safety, is serving his fifth year of a 28-year sentence in the crowded Fremont Correctional Facility on a first offense related to a fatal accident he caused. Bunn, a chronic asthmatic, is residing in close quarters with 1,600 other inmates. Only five prisoners in Fremont have had Covid tests as of April 28.

"It is my personal hope that David Bunn, who co-created the nation's first anesthesia technology school, can continue his work with a special emphasis on ventilators. In our current pandemic, it is obvious that society needs people like David Bunn, an expert on ventilator safety," said Dr. Ehrlich whose company, Monitored Telemedicine, Inc., is the nation's leading telemedicine driven company that addresses the vulnerability of senior citizens with underlying health conditions. If released, David Bunn will be hired as an executive with Monitored Telemedicine, Dr. Ehrlich said. 

Monitored Telemedicine will be creating tuition-free medical schools only to states whose governors have responded compassionately to the moral imperative to keep prisoners socially distanced.

Dr. Ehrlich, a licensed MD in Colorado since 1976, is requesting the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to allow him to bring a team of Covid testing technicians to Fremont Correctional this month.

In the past three weeks, Dr. Ehrlich has alerted state senators, several local and national journalists, and a U.S. Congressman to a safe solution for Colorado that can be adopted by all states.

"Certainly, society needs to be protected from dangerous criminals. Why can't we move ALL prisoners to a farm or ranch, or places with abandoned buildings before it is too late to stop the pandemic? Certainly, all of our citizens deserve social distancing during this pandemic," he says. "It is quite easy to construct high fences in a farm or ranch 100 miles from any city that could compassionately house prisoners. Army cots or private tents could be erected within a week just as the military does on short notice."

Referring to Sterling prison in the Denver Post on April 28 (six weeks ago), Elise Schmelzer writes, "A Colorado prison is now the site of the state's largest confirmed COVID-19 outbreak as mass testing confirms that 238 inmates at Sterling Correctional Facility have the virus."

She continues, "The coronavirus outbreak at the Sterling prison is the largest known in the state… the rate of infections in Logan County (Sterling) is the highest of any county in Colorado and more than triple the rate in crowded Denver County."

And in the case of Governor Polis, there is now a class action suit co-managed by private law firms and the ACLU where older inmates with underlying conditions are trying to get the required social distancing as per guidelines for all citizens.

Civil rights attorney Andy McNulty states, "Governor Polis has the unfettered ability to temporarily reprieve prisoners from serving their sentences." 

Here is the Colorado law on temporary reprieves: https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/Colorado Reprieve_1.pdf

McNulty continues, "He must use this power and take immediate action to depopulate Colorado's prisons in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Communicable diseases could not ask for a better breeding ground than a crowded prison. And Colorado's prisons are crowded."

Contact:
Dr. James Ehrlich
[email protected] 
303-808-6470

SOURCE Monitored Telemedicine, Inc.