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Bill would shift DOC behavioral-health program oversight to jointly adopted standards and DOH monitoring after budget concerns
Summary
A substitute to Senate Bill 53-88 would require the Department of Corrections and the Department of Health to jointly adopt behavioral-health standards for prison settings, with DOH conducting annual inspections and DOC required to implement standards and submit corrective plans when necessary.
Senate Bill 53-88, presented in public hearing, would require the Department of Corrections (DOC) and the Department of Health (DOH) to jointly establish and adopt standards for behavioral health services provided to incarcerated people, and would shift DOH’s role to an annual-inspection and monitoring model rather than full program licensing in DOC facilities.
The staff report explained the background: prior statute required DOC behavioral health programs to be licensed or certified by DOH in the same manner as community behavioral-health facilities. DOC and stakeholders told the committee that full DOH licensing of prison-based programs would impose major fiscal and operational costs — staff cited a previously estimated $30,000,000 figure — and that the community-facility regulatory model…
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