When criminal defendants’ competency to stand trial is questioned, court proceedings can sometimes screech to a halt.

The Denver County Court hopes to get those proceedings back on track through a new competency support docket, a specialized program the court announced on Wednesday.

When defendants in Colorado have been found incompetent to proceed with court proceedings, their case is stayed pending restoration. This restoration can include either an inpatient stay at a state hospital or on an outpatient basis if the defendant is not in custody.

The state has the capacity to treat 516 people at the state-run Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo. But due to the number of beds and the lack of mental health professionals in the field, which lowered the actual bed number to 474 as of March, some in-custody defendants have had to wait up to a year or longer before inpatient space becomes available for restoration services.

While Denver’s new specialty docket will not be able to speed up the time it takes to get in-custody defendants into hospital beds, it will reduce the time it takes to get them in line through assessing and connecting them with mental-health support services, the court said. 

“Competency cases are resource and time intensive and often involve several separate agencies,” Denver County Court Presiding Judge Kerri Lombardi said in a news release. “By having these cases heard and supported by a dedicated team that is fluent in competency-related matters, we expect to shorten the time it takes to stabilize defendants, keep these cases moving forward and improving public safety.”

The competency docket — located at Courtroom 3G of the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse — will only serve defendants with misdemeanor charges, not felonies.

When a defendant charged with a misdemeanor offense in the City and County of Denver has his or her competency to proceed questioned, the individual will be assessed by Denver Health to determine the likelihood of being found incompetent to proceed. If an individual meets the criteria, the competency support docket team will look at “all possible case avenues” for them to be diverted to treatment and support services outside of the formal legal competency process, the court said.

In addition to trying to speed up the process, the program will also allow the court to help defendants with “wrap-around” services, such as counselling, housing, support for brain injuries and substance abuse, officials said. 

“By statute and under the court’s previous policy, most individuals who are found to be incompetent are only referred to restoration services,” Carolyn Tyler, a spokesperson with Denver County Court, told The Denver Gazette. “Restoration services are usually only geared toward getting the individual back to a place where they can understand the criminal proceedings against them and participate in their defense. Restoration services are not usually geared toward providing mental health counseling, housing or the other wrap-around services that this new court will provide.”

The project is between the Denver County Court, the Denver District Attorney’s Office, the Colorado Public Defender’s Office, Denver Health, Bridges of Colorado, Servicios de la Raza, Denver FIRST, Second Chance Center, WellPower, the Office of Civil and Forensic Mental Health and other service and treatment providers, the court said.

The new addition marks the 11th competency court created throughout the state’s 22 Judicial Districts.

Competency courts across the state have served 700 defendants, a spokesperson for the Colorado Judicial Department told the Denver Gazette in March.

The Denver Gazette reporter, Carol McKinley, contributed to this report