Editorial: Colorado teens are not safe from drugs in juvenile corrections

Everyone knows by now that Colorado’s youth are at risk of overdose and death due to the opioid addiction crisis and the prevalence of fentanyl in the illicit drug market.

But The Denver Post’s Sam Tabachnik reported this month that the opioid crisis has spilled into Colorado’s juvenile detention and commitment facilities. The Department of Human Services and the Division of Youth Services had refused to release any information about overdoses and denied there was a problem.

Tabachnik used information gleaned from emergency response calls and police reports to uncover drug-related incidents in Colorado’s eight youth corrections facilities. Tragically Tabachnik found that in 2024 seven young people had been hospitalized for suspected overdose-related emergencies and one 16-year-old died, although an autopsy has yet to determine the cause of death.

Anders Jacobson, the director of the Division of Youth Services, told The Denver Post that not all of those emergency calls were for drug overdoses. He said youth services staff have been trained to err on the side of calling 911 anytime they are worried there is a medical emergency, and sometimes suspected overdoses are not what they seem once a patient arrives at the hospital.

We appreciate that approach to the care of teens in the temporary custody of the state, but we also know that across the nation drug overdose deaths in prisons, jails, and youth corrections facilities have increased 600%. Had the Department of Human Services had an open and honest conversation with the public about the extent of the problem, using records from outside departments wouldn’t have been necessary.

Even if we were to assume that the majority of overdose incidents reported were not actually overdoses, the other cases are concerning on their own. A now-suspended staffer is suspected of giving the 16-year-old who died Percocet – an opioid – the night before the “medical emergency” that precipitated his death days later at the hospital. Three of the juveniles at the facility in Colorado Springs were suspected of overdosing on the same day and received emergency opioid-reversal treatment Naloxone.

Jacobson, who has led the Division of Youth Services through tumultuous times during his eight years as director, should attack this possible drug crisis head-on. It is not helpful to equivocate about what the real number of overdoses was last year unless the division is going to release their data proving there hasn’t been a dangerous increase of drug contraband in their facilities. Just to be clear, any such data that does not identify patient information would be a public record that would not violate HIPPA laws.

Short of that, the division should take action.

Jacobson succinctly laid out the balancing act at these facilities.

“In the environment that we operate it is always difficult because we are working in a secure atmosphere … with young people who have severe substance abuse treatment issues and we’re aware of that,” Jacobson said. “Part of what is great about our system and sometimes can be challenging … is that we allow youth family – which is a broad definition – to have direct contact with youth. They can hug.”

Jacobson said that conditions are also different at the state’s six detention facilities – for youth awaiting a hearing and at the state’s two commitment facilities for youth who have been convicted.

We fully support the approach DYS has taken to making their facilities less prison-like and give youth access to their families. In a state that can proudly claim the pioneering efforts of Judge Benjamin Lindsey to establish a juvenile justice system, which took children out of the harsh adult world of incarceration and punishment, we surely can lead the way in keeping children safe from themselves while in the state’s custody.

But we are concerned the incidents in Greeley and Colorado Springs don’t seem to have set off any alarm bells for the division.

Youth who are temporarily in the custody of the state must be kept safe – not just from others but from the possibility of harming themselves. Jacobson said the goal was zero illicit drugs entering their facilities and we know DYS is capable of achieving that even with its current visitation rules.

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