Waiting lists for mental health care in Colorado prisons are getting shorter

DENVER — For the first time since the pandemic, Colorado is seeing dramatic improvements in the waiting list for defendants charged with crimes who need mental health treatment. These defendants are deemed too sick to stand trial, and their cases are being put on hold until they regain their sanity.

Despite improvements, hundreds of people are waiting in prison cells longer than necessary.

A year ago, there were about 445 people on the waiting list for recovery treatment. Today, there are fewer than 250.

Since the pandemic, the waiting list for treatment is shorter than it has been in years.

“We were able to offer incentives to our nurses to work for us,” said Leora Joseph, director of Colorado's Office of Behavioral Health. “We opened 44 new beds, forensic beds, at Fort Logan State Hospital, which had never taken forensic patients before. We contracted with private hospitals across the state.”

Because of the backlog, they reached an agreement in federal court in 2019 to meet certain deadlines. When the settlement decision went into effect in 2019, the Colorado Department of Human Services was able to make significant progress. The waiting list and inmate wait time were reduced over the course of the first year. In June 2020, the number on the waiting list dropped to under 100.

Then the pandemic came and all the numbers went in the wrong direction.

The Department of Human Services was struggling with staffing issues, leaving hospital beds unused and less capacity to care for people in prison awaiting transfer and treatment.

At the end of May 2023, the waiting list peaked at 464 inmates and remained similar until last summer.

A federal report filed in late May 2024 said most hospital units had reopened and DHS had secured new beds, allowing more people to be removed from the waiting list. For the first time since 2021, fewer than 300 people were on the waiting list.

Under the settlement, Colorado is required to get people into rehabilitation treatment within seven to 28 days. In April 2024, wait times ranged from about 55 to 106 days. According to the federal report, those wait times are the shortest since 2022. The state is also seeing some inmates being admitted for treatment within days to weeks, rather than weeks to months.

“We're doing what we can, and I think we continue to feel like more needs to be done,” says Meghan Baker of Disability Law Colorado, the organization that sued the state over the wait times in 2011 and won.

Baker said she remains cautiously optimistic about waitlist improvements.

“I think we have finally gained enough momentum to start implementing some of the systemic changes that are needed,” she said.

The criminal justice system is disrupted when someone is found insane. Fewer people on the waiting list means fewer delays in processing cases.