The Denver Gazette

DHS wants more space to expand youth detention

BY JULIA CARDI The Denver Gazette

The Department of Human Services has asked for an increase in its capacity to hold kids in pretrial detention in the Division of Youth Services, with a budget request of more than $3 million starting in the 2023-2024 fiscal year.

But the request has caused some consternation, since the Colorado legislature voted to lower the cap just two years ago.

DHS has asked for an increase in pretrial detention spots – which are capped by state law — from 215 to 249. The department has also asked for 38 more employees and $3.3 million by the 2023-2024 fiscal year, according to an analysis by committee staff.

The legislature cut the cap from 327 to 215 in 2021 through Senate Bill 71. The state has 15 facilities to hold youth: Some being detained before their cases resolve and others serving sentences. DHS says the state came close to its bed limit for the first time in 15 years, reaching 208 at its highest point in November 2022, according to the JBC staff analysis.

Individual facilities may also approach their capacity limits at a given time, requiring them to transport youth to other facilities for often-short stays in detention, legislative budget and policy analyst Emily Hansen told the JBC in a hearing Jan. 24.

Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Republican representing District 23, said at the hearing she has concerns about youth released on an emergency basis who wouldn’t be otherwise so the Division of Youth Services can maintain open spots. By law, the agency cannot exceed its bed cap.

“We should all be very concerned about that. That means there are kids who aren’t getting services that they need,” she said. “If we’re doing emergency releases on kids that actually probably need some additional services, and we can’t find placement for, that’s a problem.”

Increasing the youth detention bed cap would require a supplemental bill. At its Jan. 24 hearing, the Joint Budget Committee delayed a vote on the requests.

Rep. Emily Sirota, a Democrat who represents Colorado’s District 9, said in the hearing she has serious reservations about using the supplemental budget process to reverse a policy choice. The purpose of the 2021 bill was

to make sure youth are placed in the least restrictive environments possible, she said.

“I think the intent behind ensuring that we are putting children in the least restrictive place is because there is an understanding about what happens when you place youth in a carceral system, and the outcomes that come from that. And so for children that shouldn’t be there, we shouldn’t place them there,” she said.

“If it is that we are also underfunding other services in the community, that needs to be a part of this discussion before undoing something that we did just two years ago.”

DHS requested $938,729 and 9.6 additional staff for the rest of this fiscal year, which runs through June. Joint Budget Committee staff recommended $797,834.

The ACLU of Colorado also opposes the increase. The number of children in detention has never exceeded the statutory cap, the organization argues in a letter sent to the JBC, and says the budget request is an attempt to pass “significant policy reform” using the budget process.

Anaya Robinson, a senior policy strategist for the ACLU, said he believes directing money toward social services and housing placements for youth is a better use of the resources DHS requests.

“Fund the actual problem, not a perceived problem that does not yet exist,” he said in an interview.

The request came at the same time DHS asked for a reduction of $1.8 million in total funding in a separate supplemental budget request, and the Joint Budget Committee voted to adopt the staff’s recommendations in a Jan. 24 hearing.

Hansen said in the committee presentation the request comes from a decrease in caseloads, and in part because of a decrease in children receiving “step-down” services, which provide housing and treatment for youth transitioning out of incarceration in the DHS system.

One 32-bed provider the state contracted with for step-down services closed in 2021 when the state did not renew its agreement, Hansen said.

DENVER & STATE

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2023-02-05T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-02-05T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.denvergazette.com/article/281638194356807

The Gazette, Colorado Springs