§ 24-60-1001 — Execution of compact

Colorado § 24-60-1001

• Jurisdiction: Colorado
• Title 24: Government
• Art.: Interstate Compacts and Agreements

Text

The governor is hereby authorized to
enter into a compact on behalf of this state with any other state or states joining
therein in the form substantially as follows:

Interstate Compact on Mental Health

ARTICLE I

The party states find that the proper and expeditious treatment of the
mentally ill and mentally deficient can be facilitated by cooperative action, to the
benefit of the patients, their families, and society as a whole. Further, the party
states find that the necessity of and desirability for furnishing such care and
treatment bears no primary relation to the residence or citizenship of the patient
but that, on the contrary, the controlling factors of community safety and
humanitarianism require that facilities and services be made available for all who
are in need of them. Consequently, it is the purpose of this compact and of the party
states to provide the necessary legal basis for the institutionalization or other
appropriate care and treatment of the mentally ill and mentally deficient under a
system that recognizes the paramount importance of patient welfare and to
establish the responsibilities of the party states in terms of such welfare.

ARTICLE II

As used in this compact:

(a) Sending state shall mean a party state from which a patient is
transported pursuant to the provisions of the compact or from which it is
contemplated that a patient may be so sent.

(b) Receiving state shall mean a party state to which a patient is
transported pursuant to the provisions of the compact or to which it is
contemplated that a patient may be so sent.

(c) Institution shall mean any hospital or other facility maintained by a
party state or political subdivision thereof for the care and treatment of mental
illness or mental deficiency.

(d) Patient shall mean any person subject to or eligible as determined by
the laws of the sending state, for institutionalization or other care, treatment, or
supervision pursuant to the provisions of this compact.

(e) After-care shall mean care, treatment and services provided a patient,
as defined herein, on convalescent status or conditional release.

(f) Mental illness shall mean mental disease to such extent that a person
so afflicted requires care and treatment for his own welfare, or the welfare of
others, or of the community.

(g) Mental deficiency shall mean mental deficiency as defined by
appropriate clinical authorities to such extent that a person so afflicted is incapable
of managing himself and his affairs, but shall not include mental illness as defined
herein.

(h) State shall mean any state, territory or possession of the United States,
the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

ARTICLE III

(a) Whenever a person physically present in any party state shall be in need
of institutionalization by reason of mental illness or mental deficiency, he shall be
eligible for care and treatment in an institution in that state irrespective of his
residence, settlement, or citizenship qualifications.

(b) The provisions of paragraph (a) of this article to the contrary
notwithstanding, any patient may be transferred to an institution in another state
whenever there are factors based upon clinical determinations indicating that the
care and treatment of said patient would be facilitated or improved thereby. Any
such institutionalization may be for the entire period of care and treatment or for
any portion or portions thereof. The factors referred to in this paragraph shall
include the patient's full record with due regard for the location of the patient's
family, character of the illness and probable duration thereof, and such other
factors as shall be considered appropriate.

(c) No state shall be obliged to receive any patient pursuant to the provisions
of paragraph (b) of this article unless the sending state has given advance notice of
its intention to send the patient; furnished all available medical and other pertinent
records concerning the patient; given the qualified medical or other appropriate
clinical authorities of the receiving state an opportunity to examine the patient if
said authorities so wish; and unless the receiving state shall agree to accept the
patient.

(d) In the event that the laws of the receiving state establish a system of
priorities for the admission of patients, an interstate patient under this compact
shall receive the same priority as a local patient and shall be taken in the same
order and at the same time that he would be taken if he were a local patient.

(e) Pursuant to this compact, the determination as to the suitable place of
institutionalization for a patient may be reviewed at any time and such further
transfer of the patient may be made as seems likely to be in the best interest of the
patient.

ARTICLE IV

(a) Whenever, pursuant to the laws of the state in which a patient is
physically present, it shall be determined that the patient should receive after-care
or supervision, such care or supervision may be provided in a receiving state. If the
medical or other appropriate clinical authorities having responsibility for the care
and treatment of the patient in the sending state shall have reason to believe that
after-care in another state would be in the best interest of the patient and would
not jeopardize the public safety, they shall request the appropriate authorities in
the receiving state to investigate the desirability of affording the patient such
after-care in said receiving state, and such investigation shall be made with all
reasonable speed. The request for investigation shall be accompanied by complete
information concerning the patient's intended place of residence and the identity of
the person in whose charge it is proposed to place the patient, the complete
medical history of the patient, and such other documents as may be pertinent.

(b) If the medical or other appropriate clinical authorities having
responsibility for the care and treatment of the patient in the sending state and the
appropriate authorities in the receiving state find that the best interest of the
patient would be served thereby, and if the public safety would not be jeopardized
thereby, the patient may receive after-care or supervision in the receiving state.

(c) In supervising, treating, or caring for a patient on after-care pursuant to
the terms of this article, a receiving state shall employ the same standards of
visitation, examination, care, and treatment that it employs for similar local
patients.

ARTICLE V

Whenever a dangerous or potentially dangerous patient escapes from an
institution in any party state, that state shall promptly notify all appropriate
authorities within and without the jurisdiction of the escapee in a manner
reasonably calculated to facilitate the speedy apprehension of the escapee.
Immediately upon the apprehension and identification of any such dangerous or
potentially dangerous patient, he shall be detained in the state where found
pending disposition in accordance with law.

ARTICLE VI

The duly accredited officers of any state party to this compact, upon the
establishment of their authority and the identity of the patient, shall be permitted
to transport any patient being moved pursuant to this compact through any and all
states party to this compact, without interference.

ARTICLE VII

(a) No person shall be deemed a patient of more than one institution at any
given time. Completion of transfer of any patient to an institution in a receiving
state shall have the effect of making the person a patient of the institution in the
receiving state.

(b) The sending state shall pay all costs of and incidental to the
transportation of any patient pursuant to this compact, but any two or more party
states may, by making a specific agreement for that purpose, arrange for a
different allocation of costs as among themselves.

(c) No provision of this compact shall be construed to alter or affect any
internal relationships among the departments, agencies and officers of and in the
government of a party state, or between a party state and its subdivisions, as to the
payment of costs, or responsibilities therefor.

(d) Nothing in this compact shall be construed to prevent any party state or
subdivision thereof from asserting any right against any person, agency or other
entity in regard to costs for which such party state or subdivision thereof may be
responsible pursuant to any provision of this compact.

(e) Nothing in this compact shall be construed to invalidate any reciprocal
agreement between a party state and a non-party state relating to
institutionalization, care or treatment of the mentally ill or mentally deficient, or
any statutory authority pursuant to which such agreements may be made.

ARTICLE VIII

(a) Nothing in this compact shall be construed to abridge, diminish, or in any
way impair the rights, duties, and responsibilities of any patient's guardian on his
own behalf or in respect of any patient for whom he may serve, except that where
the transfer of any patient to another jurisdiction makes advisable the appointment
of a supplemental or substitute guardian, any court of competent jurisdiction in the
receiving state may make such supplemental or substitute appointment and the
court which appointed the previous guardian shall upon being duly advised of the
new appointment, and upon the satisfactory completion of such accounting and
other acts as such court may by law require, relieve the previous guardian of power
and responsibility to whatever extent shall be appropriate in the circumstances;
provided, however, that in the case of any patient having settlement in the sending
state, the court of competent jurisdiction in the sending state shall have the sole
discretion to relieve a guardian appointed by it or continue his power and
responsibility, whichever it shall deem advisable. The court in the receiving state
may, in its discretion, confirm or reappoint the person or persons previously serving
as guardian in the sending state in lieu of making a supplemental or substitute
appointment.

(b) The term guardian as used in paragraph (a) of this article shall include
any guardian, trustee, legal committee, conservator, or other person or agency
however denominated who is charged by law with power to act for or responsibility
for the person or property of a patient.

ARTICLE IX

(a) No provisions of this compact except Article V shall apply to any person
institutionalized while under sentence in a penal or correctional institution or while
subject to trial on a criminal charge, or whose institutionalization is due to the
commission of an offense for which, in the absence of mental illness or mental
deficiency, said person would be subject to incarceration in a penal or correctional
institution.

(b) To every extent possible, it shall be the policy of states party to this
compact that no patient shall be placed or detained in any prison, jail or lockup, but
such patient shall, with all expedition, be taken to a suitable institutional facility for
mental illness or mental deficiency.

ARTICLE X

(a) Each party state shall appoint a compact administrator who, on behalf
of his state, shall act as general coordinator of activities under the compact in his
state and who shall receive copies of all reports, correspondence, and other
documents relating to any patient processed under the compact by his state either
in the capacity of sending or receiving state. The compact administrator or his duly
designated representative shall be the official with whom other party states shall
deal in any matter relating to the compact or any patient processed thereunder.

(b) The compact administrators of the respective party states shall have
power to promulgate reasonable rules and regulations to carry out more effectively
the terms and provisions of this compact.

ARTICLE XI

The duly constituted administrative authorities of any two or more party
states may enter into supplementary agreements for the provision of any service or
facility or for the maintenance of any institution on a joint or cooperative basis
whenever the states concerned shall find that such agreements will improve
services, facilities, or institutional care and treatment in the fields of mental illness
or mental deficiency. No such supplementary agreement shall be construed so as
to relieve any party state of any obligation which it otherwise would have under
other provisions of this compact.

ARTICLE XII

This compact shall enter into full force and effect as to any state when
enacted by it into law and such state shall thereafter be a party thereto with any
and all states legally joining therein.

ARTICLE XIII

(a) A state party to this compact may withdraw therefrom by enacting a
statute repealing the same. Such withdrawal shall take effect one year after notice
thereof has been communicated officially and in writing to the governors and
compact administrators of all other party states. However, the withdrawal of any
state shall not change the status of any patient who has been sent to said state or
sent out of said state pursuant to the provisions of the compact.

(b) Withdrawal from any agreement permitted by Article VII (b) as to costs or
from any supplementary agreement made pursuant to Article XI shall be in
accordance with the terms of such agreement.

ARTICLE XIV

This compact shall be liberally construed so as to effectuate the purposes
thereof. The provisions of this compact shall be severable and if any phrase, clause,
sentence or provision of this compact is declared to be contrary to the constitution
of any party state or of the United States or the applicability thereof to any
government, agency, person or circumstance is held invalid, the validity of the
remainder of this compact and the applicability thereof to any government, agency,
person or circumstance shall not be affected thereby. If this compact shall be held
contrary to the constitution of any party thereto, the compact shall remain in full
force and effect as to the remaining states and in full force and effect as to the
state affected as to all severable matters.

Legislative History

Source: L. 65: p. 787, � 1. C.R.S. 1963: � 74-11-1.