2 results for tag: #solitary
New commission creates statewide standards for Colorado jails
June 23, 2024
By: Zachary Dupont
The commission was made up of people with varied backgrounds, including members of law enforcement, victims' rights advocates and mental health specialists. Vincent Atchity, the president and CEO of Mental Health Colorado, who served on the commission, discussed how the variety of backgrounds was greatly beneficial.
“It's an unusual space to be in where you've got, on the one hand, the health advocates, and on the other hand the jail-commander types,” Atchity said. “I think that there was all kinds of good ground for collaborative formulation of standards that made sense to people.”
Among some of ...
Solitary Confinement Reform Challenges Spotlight Mental Health Care Need
October 18, 2023
By: Vincent Atchity
A new law went into effect in July 2022 that limits how Colorado jails and prisons can use solitary confinement for people with certain mental and physical health needs. Some advocates saw the law as a small step forward toward the elimination of solitary confinement, which is associated with numerous health risks including increased suicide risk. Those advocates are right. It would be a small step forward, but only if it were fully implemented.
Full implementation, however, is difficult to accomplish in many, perhaps most, counties. For example, Boulder County Jail, where more than half of the individuals ...
