Colorado is one of six states that still permit holding people enduring a mental health crisis behind bars, according to the report.
Gov. Hickenlooper ordered the 30-member task force after he vetoed a bill in June that would have bolstered Colorado’s 72-hour mental health hold law. That law would have expanded the number of places a person can be detained during a mental health hold, such as a jail or emergency room, as well as the duration of the hold while awaiting a bed in an inpatient psychiatric facility.
Current state laws allow a patient to be detained in a jail for up to 24 hours before being transferred to a health facility for evaluation and treatment. The task force said the practice should be banned, though it acknowledged that rural communities without hospitals or mental health facilities will have a difficult time adapting to the new rules.
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