Inmates with mental health disorders at Montezuma County Detention Center and La Plata County Detention Facility will receive more services and treatment starting this year with mental health expansion funding from the Colorado Department of Human Services.

In January, CDHS announced $40,000 in Jail-Based Behavioral Health Services Mental Health Expansion funds for Montezuma County for the first six months of 2019 and $97,000 annually starting July 1. La Plata, Archuleta, Clear Creek and Routt counties also received funding.

Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin said about 45 percent of the 90 inmates at the county jail are suffering from some sort of behavioral or mental health issue. He said the jail has never been able to properly address their needs.

“All we’ve ever been able to do is evaluate our inmates and identify those problems and give referrals, but it doesn’t ever go any further beyond that at times,” Nowlin said.

Nowlin said the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office is working in coordination with La Plata County Sheriff’s Office and Axis Health System to carry out the mental health expansion.

Stephanie Allred, senior clinical director for Axis Health System, said the money will help fill in gaps to make services more complete. The goal, she said, is to reduce recidivism and the amount of time that people with mental illnesses spend in jail.

“We have a lot of people with major mental illness who are just sitting in jails for months, and this is happening across the state,” Allred said. “There is statewide recognition that we have to work on the bigger system.”

She said there is currently a full-time therapist at the county jail who evaluates inmates, and a psychiatrist who comes once a month. The expansion funding will now pay to bring that psychiatrist in twice a month, Allred said. The money may also be used to pay for medication.

Allred said inmates with mental illnesses face legal and mental health issues. She said the two are very different systems and staff will put more emphasis on addressing mental health while educating the inmate on their rights and legal proceedings.

“The intention is for us to try some things out and really be able to contribute toward statewide recommendations about system-level changes,” Allred said.

She said there are two state mental health hospitals in Colorado and both have monthslong waiting lists. In the past two weeks, two Montezuma County inmates have appeared in court for hearings regarding delays in either treatment to restore competency or a sanity evaluation at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo.

In one case, Montezuma County Judge JenniLynn Lawrence issued CMHIP an order to show cause for failing to admit an inmate into treatment in a timely manner.

Allred said the expansion funding could help inmates receive some of that treatment locally to avoid long delays in waiting for a bed.

“We’re going to try to catch things earlier, provide more treatment to see if we can get people stable so they don’t need to wait for a hospital bed in Pueblo,” Allred said.

Nowlin said both the mental health expansion funding and a new state directive to prioritize empty beds at mental health facilities for court and jail referrals could reduce those delays.

“We’ll see what happens,” Nowlin said.

Once inmates with mental health issues are released from jail, Nowlin said, the funding will help create a release plan to connect them with services in the community.

Allred said the funding expansion is relatively small, just under $100,000 annually, but will help fill in gaps and provide more care directly to inmates during and after incarceration.

“We’re kind of shifting from just housing folks to doing our best to get them started on treatment and get them back on track,” she said.

sdolan@the-journal.com