It is nothing new to say that Colorado is facing a mental health care crisis. Last summer we wrote about a 13-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder who was abandoned at a local hospital for weeks without help or care from state or county agencies. Before that, we highlighted how law enforcement officers are often tasked with assisting those having mental or behavioral health crises, despite having minimal training to do so. (The result, of course, is an often deadly encounter.) And late last year the Denver Post published a damning indictment of Colorado’s mental health system.
“Colorado’s mental health system is so weak that one of the more reliable ways for mentally ill people to access help is through the criminal justice system,” the piece laments. “But police and criminal courts are not designed to help people with mental illnesses, and the court system lands sick people in jail when they need help.”
Of Colorado’s state and federal prison population of 17,000, it is estimated that nearly 40% have a mental or behavioral health issue. One 2019 report had that figure even higher, noting that about 10,700 incarcerated individuals in Colorado were suffering from a mental health issue. For those in a city or county jail, the numbers are even higher, about 44%, meaning nearly half of the populations of our jails might be better helped elsewhere.
The critical issue here is one of human rights and the dignity of our fellow citizens. Jails and prisons are hostile, punitive places and we as a society should be striving to put an end to our prison industrial complex, which is fundamentally broken.
But more to the point in this case, jails and prisons are not designed to help those with mental and behavioral health issues. In fact, incarceration quite typically exacerbates mental health issues.
This is important for two reasons. First, individuals with mental health issues should be getting help before they enter the criminal justice system, thus easing the burden on the criminal justice system. And second, if someone with a mental health issue is put behind bars and their underlying issues are not treated, it is extremely unlikely that they will be able to return to society as a healthy, productive individual. Which is to say, they will likely recidivate.
Fixing this ailing system, in the words of State Rep. Judy Amabile, will require a continuum of care.
Our primary goal, Amabile explained in a recent interview, should of course be to catch people before they fall into the system. Doing so will take major investments to build up the infrastructure and staff needed to build an adequate safety net. We will need more beds in inpatient facilities, more outpatient facilities, more community partners, more care coordinators — more everything.
But, in the meantime, as we work toward building the momentum to galvanize investment in this more compassionate future, we need to fundamentally alter how we handle individuals with mental and behavioral health issues who do wind up in the criminal justice system.
A good start is Amabile’s new bill at the state Legislature, HB24-1355, which seeks to update our competency system.
The competency system is a legal process meant to ensure people are not prosecuted for crimes when they are too sick or too disabled to understand the court process and help to defend themselves.
When an individual is declared incompetent, the prosecution is paused while the defendant goes through treatment aimed at restoring them to competency.
But the system as it stands today is understaffed and overloaded. At the end of February, more than 300 people were waiting in Colorado for competency treatment, with an average wait time longer than three months. To be clear, being on the waitlist means sitting in jail — where, we’ve already pointed out, mental health issues are known to get worse. And when they do finally receive treatment, it is focused solely on improving their legal comprehension and is not holistic mental health care.
In fact, it is not uncommon for an individual to receive treatment, reach a level of competency, be moved back to jail for prosecution and then become incompetent again.
In the case of the Boulder King Soopers mass shooting, the suspect, whose name does not bear repeating, spent two years undergoing treatment after being found to be incompetent to stand trial. But after he was found competent last summer, the judge in the case urged that he remain at Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo instead of returning to the Boulder County Jail. The judge feared that the suspect would become incompetent again if housed at the jail.
HB 1355 aims to tackle this issue by diverting incompetent defendants out of the criminal justice system altogether. Under the measure, when a defendant’s competency is in question, prosecutors and defense attorneys could agree to put the prosecution on hold and send the defendant into a six-month program aimed at stabilizing the individual.
Defendants who successfully complete the six-month program could have their charges dismissed. But failing to comply with treatment could mean returning to jail and facing prosecution.
To facilitate treatment, the bill would create the Bridges Wraparound Care Program within the Office of the Statewide Behavioral Health Court Liaison to connect participants with comprehensive mental health care through existing service providers.
For those worried about especially dangerous offenders, like the suspect in the King Soopers shooting, the bill has a carve-out to prevent those charged with Class 1, 2 or 3 felonies from participating in the diversion program.
“The bottom line is that this is a public safety measure,” Rep. Amabile said. “What we’re doing now where people are cycling (through the criminal justice system) isn’t making us safer. It’s making us less safe. If we can get people into actual treatment for their disease, then we can stop them from cycling. And that, in the long run, will cost a lot less money, and it will help our public safety problem.”
Amabile, who has long been an advocate for a more robust and humane mental health system, was quick to point out that this one bill isn’t going to fix everything. “But it is really a good, strong step in the right direction,” she said.
We couldn’t agree more.
As we strive to continue building a continuum of care for those most vulnerable among us, preventing individuals with mental and behavioral health issues from cycling through our criminal justice system will prevent our jails and prisons from having to serve as inpatient mental health facilities, it will help increase public safety, and it will reduce our incarcerated population. HB 1355 is a long overdue step toward progress.
— Gary Garrison for the Editorial Board
