Panel recommends $5.3 million package to address competency placement gaps; members require lease protections

The Capital Development Committee voted unanimously to recommend a Department of Human Services supplemental package meant to close gaps in competency restoration and placements for people found permanently incompetent to proceed. The CDC recorded two advisory recommendations: $3,577,898 of cash funds for a home‑like residential (Pueblo campus cottages) renovation and $1,722,906 in capital construction funds for an outpatient clinic fit‑out; the committee stipulated that lease terms be structured to last at least as long as the useful life of tenant improvements.

Senior Director Leora Joseph (Civil and Forensic Mental Health, Department of Human Services) told the committee that competency is a legal term and a constitutional right that ensures people charged with crimes can participate in their trial and consult with counsel. "Competency is a legal term. It is a constitutional right provided by the US Constitution to allow people charged with a crime to participate in their trial in a meaningful way and confer with their lawyer," Joseph said while summarizing why the state needs community options for people who are unrestorable to proceed and who do not meet hospital admission criteria.

Joseph said the department is tracking about 80 people currently labeled permanently incompetent to proceed by forensic evaluators and that a recent change in Colorado law about a year earlier accelerated release processes, producing a rapid rise in cases that revealed a placement gap for people with neurocognitive and neurodevelopmental disorders. She described two linked responses: (1) a secure, renovated 16‑bed unit on the Pueblo campus to house certain high‑need individuals and (2) an outpatient clinic to supervise and treat people in the community so judges have an alternative to continued detention or hospital placement.

Joseph told the committee that Colorado remains subject to a federal consent decree related to competency admissions; the lawsuit was filed in 2011 and the consent decree entered in 2019. She stated the state pays capped fines related to the decree of "between $10 and $12,000,000" per year and that the department has used those funds, in part, to support programs such as competency dockets and community placements.

Members asked detailed questions about projections, interim placements and the fiscal mechanics of leasing and tenant improvements. Director Lars Rockholm (Facility Management, Department of Human Services) said the Office of the State Architect would engage the state's preferred broker (JLL) and that lease terms can be negotiated (for example, a 10‑year firm term with extensions). Rockholm added that because state fiscal rules allow the state to exit leases at the end of a fiscal year, lessors may be less willing to amortize tenant improvements; as a result, the department expects to fund some tenant improvements up front and will seek lease terms appropriate to protect state investments.

The CDC split the DHS package into two motions consistent with Joint Budget Committee practice; both motions passed unanimously on roll call. The CDC's actions are advisory; the Joint Budget Committee will receive the recommendations and make final budget decisions.