Nine state lawmakers from the Black Democratic Legislative Caucus have asked Gov. Jared Polis to give increased priority to people in the state’s prison and jails.

The legislators wrote that they were “disheartened and alarmed” by the state’s decision to remove incarcerated people from the middle tier of vaccine priority, a move made after Polis twice said inmates shouldn’t be given priority over those not in prison. The caucus announced the letter Tuesday afternoon, an hour after the American Civil Liberties Union asked a judge to hear evidence about Polis’s about-face on the vaccine plan, calling the decision proof of the governor’s indifference to the plight of prisoners.

In their letter, the lawmakers urged Polis to reverse his decision, in part because it “reinforces systemic racism”; the caucus noted that people of color are disproportionately imprisoned and have been disproportionately affected by the worst of the pandemic.

“We may not be able to control all of the external factors of bias that lead to this disproportionality, but we can control this one,” the authors wrote, adding that COVID can spread “like wildfire” in prisons and jails.

The letter was signed by Reps. Leslie Herod, Tony Exum, Dominique Jackson, Jennifer Bacon, Iman Jodeh and Naquetta Ricks, along with Sens. James Coleman, Janet Buckner and Rhonda Fields. Several of those lawmakers were recently elected. 

The letter is cosigned by various other members of the community, including several faith leaders.

The filing by the ACLU includes articles and studies, and a letter from a Colorado physician, providing evidence that many in the scientific community believe that inmates should be near the top of the list for vaccines. In Colorado, prisons and jails have been hammered by outbreaks. Even as the overall spread of the virus stabilizes, it continues its rampant spread across several prison facilities statewide.

The caucus’s asked Polis to “re-commit to and follow the science, even when it is difficult and potentially unpopular.” 

“The CDC has recognized that those working and living inside a prison are at increased risk. for infection – and that their risk to infect members of the community where prisons are located is exponentially higher as well,” Herod, the chair of the caucus, said in a statement. “Communities of color, and Black people specifically, are over represented in the prison population and over represented in COVID deaths. An equitable vaccine dissemination plan MUST prioritize and value the life of the incarcerated.”

Herod has been advocate for inmates’ rights, passing the criminal justice overhaul legislation earlier this year; last year, she passed a bill to provide free feminine hygiene products to detainees.

Fellow Democrat Bacon, recently elected to the Legislature, called the lack of prioritization for inmates an injustice.

Initially, Colorado gave inmates a relatively high prioritization. In that draft plan, all inmates and the staff members guarding them would’ve receive vaccinations in the early spring, which is in line with public health recommendations from elsewhere. But after Polis twice said that inmates shouldn’t receive vaccinations before anyone else, the state released a finalized plan that didn’t contemplate inmates at all.

Instead, state officials have said that inmates will be judged alongside the rest of the population, without weighing their living circumstances. An inmate over 65 years old would be vaccinated along others in that age group; healthy, young inmates wouldn’t be in line for inoculation until the summer.