A task force created by Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper is calling on the state of Colorado to stop housing people who have been placed on involuntary mental health holds in jails if they haven't been charged with a crime, according to the Denver Post.
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.