Iris Eytan tells Judge ‘jail is no place for the mentally ill’

Iris Eytan tells Judge ‘jail is no place for the mentally ill’

State hospital in Pueblo can’t keep up with competency evaluations for criminal suspects

BY ROBERT BOCZKIEWICZ FOR THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
SEP 28, 2018

DENVER, CO
A judge said Friday she will decide whether a state agency that operates the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo is violating an agreement by keeping hundreds of defendants in jails across the state for long periods instead of sending them for mental health evaluations.

“A jail is no place for a person who is mentally ill,” attorney Iris Eytan told Magistrate Judge Nina Y. Wang of U.S. District Court in Denver . Eytan said defendants waiting to be sent to the hospital “have sat in jail for months, deteriorating.”

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