Colorado settles federal suit over its competency restoration backlog

Colorado's Department of Human Services reached a federal settlement on March 15, 2019, ending eight years of litigation with Disability Law Colorado over chronic failures to provide timely competency evaluations and restoration services. The settlement established binding deadlines and a triage system after wait times for state hospital beds stretched past a year for some defendants, with the 449-bed Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo unable to keep pace with court orders. By 2021, 347 people awaited evaluations or restoration, with one individual waiting 325 days, forcing the state to pay millions in court-ordered fees.