A handful of Colorado families sued the Adams County Sheriff’s Office this week for refusing to allow in-person jail visits and instead requiring inmates and family members to pay for phone and video calls through a system that has, in five years, put $3.1 million into the sheriff’s coffers.

The lawsuit is focused on visits between parents and children, and argues that prohibiting in-person contact between parents and their kids is both a violation of their constitutional rights and likely to cause long-term harm to everyone involved. The proposed class-action case includes both minor children who want to visit their incarcerated fathers, and mothers who want to visit their incarcerated sons.

“They’ve denied children the right to have contact visits with their parents, to be hugged by

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