What set of standards are jails held to in the state of Colorado? Until recently, the answer was none.

In 2022, Rep. Judy Amabile, D-Boulder, sought to rectify that by creating the Colorado Jail Standards Commission. The goal of the commission, in Amabile’s words, is to create a set of standards within the state that all jails, big and small, must adhere to.

Currently, Colorado jails have no state-held standards that it must adhere to, making the quality of the jails differ wildly, according to Amabile.

Amabile recalled a visit to a small jail that spurred her interest in making the Colorado Jail Standards Commission. The jail was a four-bed facility under the 125-year-old courthouse, Amabile said, where their lone inmate at the time was sitting in the common room, watching TV.

“It (the jail) doesn’t meet [Americans with Disabilities Act] standards,” Amabile said. “This place where people sleep are literally cages. I don’t even think you could sit up in bed, maybe you could, but you couldn’t stand up in there. … It’s really rough.”

From that visit, as well as a general passion to improve the conditions in jails, Amabile put forward legislation to create the commission. The goal was to create recommendations to improve the conditions for all incarcerated individuals in the state’s jails, primarily people awaiting trial who have not been convicted of a crime, Amabile said.

“It really is a big shift for our state,” Amabile said. “Maybe it’s just a baby step towards a big shift. But we haven’t had any state oversight of what the jails are doing until now.”

Jake Straw, the detention commander for the Summit County Sheriff’s Office who assisted Summit County Commissioner Tamara Pogue on the commission and who also serves on the Jail Standards Advisory Committee, said that Colorado was lagging and standards were much needed. Straw told The Gazette Colorado is one of only 13 or 14 states nationwide to not have uniform jail standards.

“That’s pretty demonstrative that we’re a little bit late to the game on this,” Straw said.

The commission was created in 2022 and, after nearly two years of work, the commission returned with a 127-page  report outlining its recommendations.

The report includes recommendations for medical care, visitation, food service and staffing.

Straw described health care, mental health services and restrictive housing as the “hot-topic” issues that were discussed the most by the commission.

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 the standards implemented include: a requirement for a nurse to provide medical treatment and medication to inmates; training for correctional officers to asses and reduce suicide risk; for correctional officers to meaningfully check on inmates every 15 minutes; and restrictions on solitary confinement.

“I remember, I started my career in 2013 and, at that point in time, the deputies were responsible for administering the medications,” Straw said. “I’m not a medical professional. I don’t have a background. … Am I the right person to be doing that? Absolutely not.”

“Every jail has to have an approach to suicide prevention in place that is formulated in collaboration with medical professionals,” Atchity said. “It’s not rocket science, it is just the best people can do to keep people who are in greatly stressful situations limit their opportunities for ending their lives.”

Amabile admits that some of the desire to create the commission was out of desire to see solitary confinement restricted from Colorado jails, something the report suggests as a recommendation.

Amabile acknowledged many jails in Colorado are holding themselves to many of these standards already, if not all, but said forcing all Colorado jails — including some “bad actors” — to adhere to all of the basic standards was a big step forward.

Straw noted that it was equally important to make sure the standards were reasonably achievable by every jail in the state.

“Adams County or Arapahoe County, big, big jails with a decent amount of funding — they’re going to be able to meet the standard,” Straw said. “Well, let’s look at Yuma (County) — are they going to be able to meet this standard?”

Setting of standards, in Straw’s eyes, is part of the goal to decrease recidivism, something the Summit County Sheriff’s Office has made a priority. Straw talked about how the county has implemented high-quality medical and mental health services for inmates, pretrial services and higher-quality food in the jail.

“My belief is that if we pay more attention on the forefront, we’re actually being proactive and could reduce the need for these people to come back (to jail),” Straw said. “Because every time that happens, think about the financial burden on the court system, think about the financial burden on the (district attorney’s office) on public defenders, right? It’s widespread.”

Gov. Jared Polis signed the Jail Standards Commission’s recommendations into law on June 3. The bill will require all jails adhere to the standards starting Jan. 1, 2026.

The bill also creates an advisory committee to assess jail facilities and policies; provide recommendations to the oversight committee for changes to standards; and process and grant variances.

Starting in 2026, state-led jail inspections also will begin, with possible punishments from the state Attorney General’s Office for sheriff’s offices that do not comply with standards.

“This bill gives some power to the office to participate in these inspections and to, if they see a pattern and practice of not adhering, then they can intervene,” Amabile explained.

“I think there is going to be a concerted effort across the state to have to provide, whether you agree with it or not, a standard level of care to all inmates,” Straw said. “That’s huge.”