10 13 25 State Senator Judy Amabile talks about Colorado's criminal competency laws

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Colorado's Morning News Chad Bauer and Gina Gandek
discussing how to improve care for individuals schizophrenia. The National
Dialogue on Schizophrenia helday forum in Denver on Friday, bringing
together policymakers, medical experts, and other groups focused on mental
health advocacy.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
The forum comes as Colorado lawmakers are also moving to
reform state laws that allow defendants found incompetent to be
released without treatment. Joining us on the KA Commons beart
Health hotline is Colorado State Senator for District eighteen. It's Judyambele,
Senator Mabeley. Thank you so much for your time this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Thank you for covering this really important topic.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Tell us a little bit more about the forum and
just overall where Colorado stands when it comes to mental
health advocacy. Are is there an adequate amount of work
happening or is there still much more room for improvement.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
So the conference was really excellent because it's focused on schizophrenia,
and we don't talk about that disease often enough. The
treatment and the care that people need when they have
a disease like schizophrenia or schizo effective disorder or bipolar
with psychotic episodes. It's very, very different from the treatment

(01:15):
for people with diseases like depression and anxiety, and so
it was really a relief to hear a conference focused
on that. I would say Colorado is ranked at the
bottom of all states in terms of outcomes and access
to treatment for people with serious mental illness. So we

(01:38):
are actually doing about the worst. And the problem that
we have is that we do not have an adequate
continuum of care. We do not have enough mental health
hospital beds, we don't have enough step down beds, transitional
living homes, we don't have enough sober living homes. We

(01:59):
do not have a full continuum of care, and that
is creating a lot of problems for our state.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Well, Senator, with the current budget issues the state faces,
is this going to be even more difficult to overcome
this challenge? Is there something you can can do next
session to try to alleviate that.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
So I have been screaming into the void for about
five years now about this need for more beds, and
we did use some ARPA funding to create one hundred
and sixty eight beds in transitional living homes and it's
been a godsend. So it does cost money upfront, but
of course it saves money in the long run if

(02:40):
you can give people the care and treatment they need
before they do things like enter the criminal justice system,
or cycle in and out of homelessness, or cycle in
and out of short term emergency visits and short term
hospital stays. So it is spending the money upfront to
do the thing that will save you money in the

(03:01):
long run and also save a lot of human suffering.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Senator Amabel also in the news as of late, has
been some controversy when it comes to the law for
defendants who are found incompetent to stand trial being released
without treatment. You are one of the main sponsors of
the Adult Competency to Stand Trial Bill. Do you feel
like this law was implemented as intended or has there
been some issues that have popped up as of late

(03:26):
that need to be addressed.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
For fifty years since the Supreme Court decision in the seventies,
people who are not competent to stand trial and are
unlikely to be restored in the foreseeable future have to
be released. That is the law of the land, and
that has been happening in Colorado. The young man in

(03:50):
Greeley who was released recently and then reoffended had been
released in twenty twenty two also had his charges dropped.
We absolutely need more beds so that that person, when
they are released from the criminal system, can be civilly
committed into our civil system. And that is where we

(04:13):
fell down, because there aren't adequate placements and because the
process to get somebody into those placements into cumbersome.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
We Senator, do you see any changes being brought up
on the floor in this next session to adjust that
adult Competency to Stand Trial bill.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yes, So we have been meeting for months now, long
before this case came about, to make adjustments to the
bill and to ensure that somebody who has an intellectual
or developmental disability, somebody who has Alzheimer's or traumatic brain injury,

(04:56):
that they are able to get into enought appropriate placement.
And that has turned out to be very difficult because
those placements don't exist, and because the rules in place
right now for individuals in those categories are very difficult

(05:16):
to navigate and it takes a long time. So we
are working on an emergency commitment process. We are working
on clarifying who is supposed to do the work to
find the placement and to place the person. And now

(05:36):
we are also working on figuring out where we can
put some resources to create more placements.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
With the quick minute we have left, when do you
think this law could be amended? What do you think
the timeline of this will be, Because there's a lot
of people that are saying, well, the longer we wait,
the more the possibility is of having these repeat offenders
back on the streets.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
So we are planning to introduce a bill on the
first day of the session in January that we hope
will be able to make its way through the system
very quickly. This is a bipartisann issue. Almost everyone in
the General Assembly voted for the bill in twenty twenty four,
both Democrats and Republicans. It passed through the Senate unanimously,

(06:23):
and so we hope that we will have that same
come together with this bill so that we can address
both the rights of victims and the needs of the
people who are suffering from these various illnesses.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Representing District eighteen, State Senator Judio mobel I, Senator, thanks
so much for your time this morning.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
Thank you so much for having me