Gov. Bill Owens wants state legislators to pass a multimillion-dollar emergency request that would get mentally ill inmates out of local jails and into the state hospital, his spokesman said Thursday.
A dispute between the state and the courts over how Colorado treats defendants deemed incompetent to stand trial boiled over this week, with prosecutors calling for contempt-of-court citations against two state administrators.
Last week, Marva Livingston Hammons, executive director of the Colorado Department of Human Services, asked the governor for an emergency appropriation of $3.5 million so that roughly 80 incompetent inmates languishing in jail could be admitted to the state hospital as ordered by judges throughout Colorado.
“It’s the governor’s strong desire that the (legislature’s) Joint Budget Committee approve the $3.5 million for the hiring of hospital staff” at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo, said Owens’ spokesman, Dan Hopkins.
Hopkins said the governor signed the request within two days and it was sent to the JBC, which turned down the initial request Tuesday.
But Hopkins said Hammons will be back before the committee late next week to renew her request, with the full support of the governor.
“This is a very concerning and complex problem,” Hopkins said.
Rep. Bernie Buescher, a Grand Junction Democrat and vice chairman of the JBC, said that despite Owens’ request that the committee pass the $3.5 million emergency request, the JBC will not rubber-stamp Owens’ plea. He said he is sure that the JBC will have questions for Hammons next week.
Two special prosecutors appointed by Denver District Judge Martin Egelhoff are asking Egelhoff to find both Hammons, whose department oversees the hospital, and Steve Schoenmakers, the hospital’s superintendent, in contempt for not taking incompetent inmates they’ve been ordered to admit to the hospital.
State Sen. Moe Keller, D- Wheat Ridge, a member of the JBC, said she felt that Schoenmakers is being unfairly criticized.
“I don’t think it is fair he is taking the brunt of the criticism,” Keller said of Schoenmakers.
Keller declined to say whether she believes Hammons deserves prosecution for the way she has handled the situation.
Both Keller and Buescher said they had been aware of the problem for months but were surprised by the emergency request. Keller said the JBC had tried to get the department to study how beds are allocated for the inmates and other mentally ill individuals in Colorado.
Hopkins said the governor was not aware of the problem until the emergency appropriations request was made by Hammons. But Hopkins defended Hammons, saying he didn’t believe “there are any villains here.”
He said that for years, there had been plans to build a new hospital for the mentally ill but that came to an abrupt halt when a severe budget crunch hit the state several years ago.
But Hopkins said that with the passage of Referendum C, lawmakers were able to approve $50 million for the 200-bed facility, under construction. It is to be completed in the spring of 2009.
“What needs to happen now is for people to come together,” Hopkins said. He said that the $3.5 million would enable the waiting list of defendants found incompetent to stand trial to be eliminated within a year.
If the measure passes the JBC next week, the hospital would be allowed to begin interviewing for new positions and hiring staff, he added.
Iris Eytan, one of the special prosecutors appointed by Egelhoff, said she believes that Hammons is the person who should be cited for contempt, not Owens or legislators.
“Marva Hammons is the executive director of human services. Hammons is the individual who shares the pot of money that is going to make a difference here,” Eytan said. “She distributes the money.”
Hammons did not respond to a request for an interview Thursday.
But Eytan said Thursday that she believes that a resolution of the situation may be reached, specifically because of Assistant Attorney General Beverly Fulton, who is representing Schoenmakers and Hammons.
“Bev Fulton is, at this point, very willing to work something out and find a resolution to this,” Eytan said. “So our hope is that we are not going to be adversaries. But our other hope is that this is not going to take a long time because, frankly, every single day that goes by is another day when the mental illness of almost 100 people is going to be exacerbated.”
Both Hopkins and Liz McDonough, spokeswoman for the Human Services Department, said Hammons doesn’t have the flexibility that Eytan presumes she does. The legislature approves specific amounts of money for certain parts of the department and certain programs, they said.
Buescher, the JBC vice chairman, said that since July, the committee has been asking the Department of Human Services for a concrete plan as to how it was going to deal with the waiting list of defendants.
“We have been pressing the department for a comprehensive plan,” he said. “We really didn’t get a satisfactory answer.”
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
