Over 5700 People with Mental Illness in Colorado's Prison System
---------------- Denver Post's award-winning Series on Colorado's Failed Mental Health System "Breakdown"
---------------- Denver Post's award-winning Series on Colorado's Failed Mental Health System "Breakdown"
Colorado prisons treat more than four times as many people with mental illness each day as all of the psychiatric hospitals in the state.
The Department of Corrections, by default, is the largest mental health treatment center in Colorado. A third of inmates, 5,760 prisoners, have mental problems.
In Denver, the jail — by sheer volume of “patients” at up to 500 per day — is the biggest provider of mental health services in the metro area. One-fifth of Denver County Jail inmates have mental illnesses.
--------The Denver Post -- Breakdown Series
Prisons: Treatment Centers of Last Resort