Former inmate awarded $2.55 million settlement after gouging out both eyes during schizophrenic episode inside jail

A former inmate in Colorado received a hefty settlement from a federal civil rights lawsuit after he severely injured himself during a schizophrenic episode while he was still in jail.

Sometime in 2016, Ryan Partridge of Boulder, Colorado, was taken to Boulder County Jail in connection with an assault of a homeless person. During his time in custody, Partridge, who suffers from schizophrenia, attempted to harm himself on several occasions. He tried to commit suicide by diving head first from the second story of the facility, breaking a vertebra. He then threatened to jump from a similar spot on another occasion, but others were able to talk him down. There are also reports that he repeatedly smashed his head against a toilet, breaking several of his teeth and bruising his face.

"[T]hroughout all of 2016, Mr. Partridge was in and out of the Boulder County Jail, each time presenting with unmistakable signs of severe mental illness and periodically being taken from the jail to go to the state mental hospital or an affiliated treatment center in attempts to restore him to legal competency to face the minor criminal charges pending against him," the federal lawsuit claimed. "The jail was well aware that Mr. Partridge suffered from schizophrenia."

Though jail officials and Partridge all knew about his condition, Partridge refused to take his medication because he feared he was being poisoned. "I remember them asking if I wanted medication," Partridge later told CBS4. "I didn't know what for and I didn't trust anyone."

A statement from the jail indicated that officials "are prohibited from involuntarily administering psychotropic medications to inmates ... even when such inmates are experiencing extreme symptoms."

In December 2016, Partridge experienced a schizophrenic episode so severe that he gouged out both of his eyes, claiming he was ordered to do so by the CIA. It appears he has since received transplants, but his vision has never been restored.

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This week, officials announced that Partridge had reached two separate settlements with 22 defendants, including then-Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle and various jail administrators and employees. The first settlement awards Partridge $2.225 million for jail officials being "deliberately indifferent to his serious psychiatric needs." The other, a $350,000 settlement, is connected to accusations that jail officers used excessive force in their treatment of Partridge.

The settlement money will come "from the county’s insurance carrier," the sheriff's statement said.