State Settles Competency Wait-List Lawsuit
STATE SETTLES COMPETENCY WAIT-LIST LAWSUIT
Under the leadership of new Gov. Bill Ritter, the state of Colorado today settled contempt-of-court proceedings arising from the case of People vs. Eugene Zuniga, which involved county-jail inmates who were being forced to wait months for mental-health evaluations and care.
A Denver District Court judge issued contempt citations against former Colorado Department of Human Services Executive Director Marva Livingston Hammons and Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo (CMHIP) Superintendent Steve Schoenmakers last year. The state had failed to provide court-ordered sanity hearings and evaluations on whether 81 county-jail inmates were competent to stand trial, in some cases for up to five months.
Today's settlement agreement dismisses the contempt proceedings and was reached with the help of a court-appointed mediator. The agreement stipulates that inmates will be admitted to CMHIP for evaluations within 28 days of receipt of the court order, with an average wait period of 24 days, except for special circumstances and if the number of inmates seeking admission does not dramatically increase.
"I'm glad I was able to help push this process toward resolution," Gov. Ritter said. "This agreement serves everyone's interests and was reached without lengthy and expensive litigation. "Under this settlement, detainees will get the services they need in a reasonable timeframe, the jails can manage their populations better and the state can meet its obligations."
The number of mentally ill inmates requiring court-ordered sanity and competency evaluations and Incompetent To Proceed restorations has increased significantly from fiscal 2002 to fiscal 2007 (529 to 917). But years of budget cuts hindered the state's ability to provide timely competency hearings and reduced the number of beds available at CMHIP and other facilities.
The state was facing $80,000-a-day fines if it did not find beds at CMHIP for the county jail inmates.
On Dec. 15, the Department of Human Services sought and received $1.6 million in emergency funding from the legislature's Joint Budget Committee to staff a temporary 20-bed unit for competency evaluations and restoration services. By Jan. 8, the CMHIP staff opened the unit and all inmates on the wait list have now been served.
"To have staffed this unit in only three weeks and over the holidays truly speaks to the dedication of our CMHIP employees," said Karen Beye, the newly appointed executive director of the Colorado Department of Human Services.
The settlement agreement will remain in place until a permanent High Security Forensic Unit at CMHIP opens in 2009, providing sufficient capacity for competency evaluation and restoration services.
Retired Boulder District Court Judge Dan Hale, now with the Judicial Arbiter Group in Denver, provided mediation services free of charge.
Special counsel for the plaintiffs from the law firm Reilly, Pozner and Connelly waived their fees and will contribute $30,000 for mental-health treatment at CMHIP and $20,000 to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless for mental-health programs.
"This was an extremely collaborative and successful process," said special counsel Iris Eytan. "We have made in-roads into the greater problem of the mentally ill in the criminal-justice system."
http://www.colorado.gov/governor/press/february07/wait-list-lawsuit.html