After a series of high-profile crimes throughout the state last spring and summer exposed gaps in Colorado’s legal system for individuals declared incompetent to stand trial, lawmakers and an advocacy organization are pushing for changes this year.

Extensive media coverage of cases such as Solomon Galligan’s — a convicted sex offender arrested last year for attempting to kidnap children at an Aurora playground — left many Coloradans alarmed about how the state handles defendants with serious mental health issues.

Those concerns were amplified by the case of Ephraim Debisa, who was charged with attacking a group of people in downtown Greeley in May and, like Galligan, was found incompetent to stand trial and unlikely to be restored, raising questions about allowing them to go back to the streets, where some have reoffended, and the lack of placement options.

After his release, Debisa, 21, was arrested for allegedly bringing a gun to the University of Northern Colorado campus in Greeley. He was not a student, and according to campus police, he was banned from the campus.

In 1972, the United States Supreme Court ruled that states cannot indefinitely jail individuals found incompetent to stand trial. While Colorado jails have been required to release these individuals for over five decades, finding them safe housing has always been a challenge.

“When the U.S. Supreme Court decided that in the 70s, the idea was that people would be civilly committed to an appropriate setting, and that’s the piece that hasn’t really been working well here in Colorado, because we don’t have appropriate settings,” said Sen. Judy Amabile, D-Boulder.

Amabile authored the law requiring individuals declared incompetent and unlikely to be restored to be released from jail.

Finding placement for individuals who have been declared incompetent for reasons other than severe mental illness — such as an intellectual or developmental disability, dementia, or a traumatic brain injury — is particularly difficult, Amabile said.

According to Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams, Ephraim, the man accused of the Greeley attack, was declared incompetent because he had no formal education and was from a different country, and therefore could not fully comprehend America’s legal system. The Weld County Sheriff’s Office held Ephraim for 35 days, as allowed by law, but Reams said authorities were forced to release him to the streets afterward.

Amabile insisted that Weld County misinterpreted the law she sponsored in 2024. She said that if proper placement is not found within 35 days, law enforcement may request up to four additional 35-day extensions.

She said she plans to introduce a bill to clarify those rules, along with several other changes.

The bill, sponsored by Amabile, Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa, House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, and House Minority Leader Jarvis Caldwell, R-Colorado Springs, also outlines procedures for placing individuals declared incompetent.

“Somebody with Alzheimer’s or a traumatic brain injury probably needs to go to a nursing home, and we have secure nursing homes, but we don’t have enough, and we didn’t have a way for the state to pay for that,” Amabile explained. “So that’s what’s getting put in this bill — access to placements, and also the creation of additional placements for people who are dangerous.”

In his most recent budget amendment and supplemental request, Gov. Jared Polis requested a total of about $80 million and 150 full-time employees over the next three years to “ensure that resources are available for secure placements and opportunities for community-based supervision for individuals found incompetent to proceed.”

Amabile said the majority of that money would go toward funding her bill and a new program for individuals charged with low-level crimes who are found incompetent to proceed, known as assisted outpatient treatment.

Assisted outpatient treatment is court-ordered mental health treatment, similar to how a judge might order an individual to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings or group therapy.

The vast majority of individuals declared incompetent to proceed have been charged with low-level crimes, Amabile said, and assisted outpatient treatment is a way to reserve civil commitment beds for those who need it most, such as those who pose a danger to themselves or others.

 “No one’s talking about putting people in the state hospital for misdemeanor trespass or something like that, but they can still be unlikely to be restored, and they can still be very in need of services and help,” she said.

Amabile’s bill also outlines a civil commitment process for individuals found incompetent due to intellectual or developmental disabilities and establishes “step-down” procedures for those restored to competency.

“This is a thing that I’ve been pushing throughout my five, going on six years in the legislature, is to create more opportunities for people to get the care they need, so that’s what we’re going to do here is open up some more beds and open up some more pathways to get appropriate treatment for people who are sick,” Amabile said.

Voters could see proposed changes to the state’s competency procedures on the 2026 ballot.

Michael Fields, executive director of the advocacy organization Advance Colorado, said his organization is in the early stages of getting its competency measure qualified for the ballot.

The measure outlines several changes: first, it would require the Behavioral Health Administration to establish specific criteria for who can perform competency evaluations.

“We think that some reforms need to be made around what competency designation looks like,” Fields said. “It shouldn’t just be one person saying, ‘Hey, this person’s incompetent.’ We need more verification on that. Right now, it’s one entity, one person, who’s saying, ‘Oh, this person’s incompetent to stand trial,’ charges are dropped, the person’s let go, they reoffend, and the same thing happens again. That’s the loop that we’re stuck in, so it has to be a more in-depth process.”

The measure would also establish timelines for mandatory dismissal from civil commitment, depending on the level of the offense for which an individual is charged. It would mandate the state to prioritize civil commitment beds for individuals found “permanently incompetent and a continuing danger to the public.”

“We are really focused on the danger to society, letting people out that we know are reoffending again, and making sure that something holds them in, because when charges are dropped, it becomes voluntary, even if you’re a danger,” Fields said.

Additionally, the measure would allow district attorneys to refile charges against individuals if they regained competency and pause the statute of limitations during a defendant’s civil commitment.

Fields said Advance Colorado is currently working on minor changes to the measure and expects to bring it before the Colorado Title Board shortly.

“There are people on both sides of the aisle, including the governor, who say we need to do something about this,” he said. “Hopefully, we can get there on it.”