Colorado’s Joint Budget Committee decided not to move forward with a request to increase the number of pre-trial detention spaces in the state’s juvenile delinquency system.

The recommendation not to go forward by the committee’s nonpartisan staff cited ongoing conversations among legislators who sponsored legislation to decrease the capacity two years ago. But the committee didn’t close the door on the capacity increase altogether, choosing to set aside more than $3 million for the request in case legislation does not materialize to raise the cap.

Division of Youth Services officials made the request to increase its number of pre-trial detention spots, capped by state law, up to 249 from 215. Analysis by Joint Budget Committee staff showed the state reached 208 children in detention last November — its highest point — coming close to its capacity for the first time in 15 years. The cap increase request has a price tag of $3.3 million starting in the 2023-2024 fiscal year.

Individual facilities may also approach their capacity limits, requiring them to transport children to other facilities — sometimes long distances and far away from their families — for often-short stays in detention, legislative budget and policy analyst Emily Hansen has said in presentations to the committee.

But the request has caused some consternation, since the Colorado legislature voted to lower the cap just two years ago.

“Folks whose duty and mission is to work on behalf of the best interests of the child have raised concern about raising a bed cap and not focusing on the work that that committee was supposed to do to ensure that services are provided in the community, and not keeping out-of-detention youth who do not need to be detained,” Rep. Emily Sirota said.

“We know of the negative consequences from entering kids into the system like this and the downward spiral that happens after that.”

The legislature cut the Division of Youth Services’ pre-trial detention capacity from 327 to 215 in 2021. Sirota reiterated a concern she raised in a January hearing about using the supplemental budget process to reverse a policy choice.

Though the Joint Budget Committee voted last week not to sponsor legislation for a capacity increase, members reserved the $3.3 million funding request in case a bill does get introduced. Reserving the funds, called a “set aside,” ensures a bill wouldn’t compete with other pieces of legislation for funding.

Sirota said she supports setting aside the funding to allow continued study on ways to provide community-based services to children involved in the justice system.

Republican Rep. Rod Bockenfeld said in the hearing he struggled with not moving forward with increasing the bed capacity. He pointed to a need to ensure the juvenile system has room for children accused of committing violent crimes who may pose a threat to their communities.

“Everything that you read to me tells me that (DYS) is basically crying for help. That they need more resources in order to manage their circumstances, and our recommendation is still not to give them those resources, and hope that somebody’s going to come along with some legislation that fixes the problem,” said Bockenfeld, who represents House District 56 in central Colorado.

The committee staff’s analysis shows an increase in violent crimes has led to more children being screened into detention, citing 3,402 screenings in 2022, and 41% of detention admissions last year for violent crimes.

However, policy analysts for the ACLU of Colorado — which opposes the capacity increase — believes the legislative analysis doesn’t capture a full picture of trends in juvenile case numbers in the past decade. Nicole Duncan, the organization’s youth policy counsel, told the Denver Gazette that looking only at data in the years after the COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t account for an overall downward trend in juvenile cases.

“Juvenile filing detention numbers and pretrial release numbers all remained significantly down as compared to before the pandemic,” she said.

In the same hearing last week, the Joint Budget Committee approved a reduction of about $2 million in total funding in a separate supplemental budget request from the Department of Human Services, prompted in part by what staff analysis said came from a decrease in caseloads of community placements for children in contracted facilities. The committee staff’s analysis said that drop has resulted from an increase in severe cases that call for more secure placements for children.

The funding decrease request also came in part from a decrease in children receiving “step-down” services, which provide housing and treatment for youth transitioning out of incarceration in the DHS system. One 32-bed provider the state contracted with for step-down services, Ridge View in Watkins, closed in 2021 after reports of abuse and neglect.