Gov. Mark Gordon signed into law Friday a bill allowing the Wyoming Department of Health to reimburse jails for holding and treating people with mental illnesses while they await competency evaluations or restoration services at the state hospital.
Gordon described Senate File 10 as “a great first step” toward addressing a longstanding crisis: inmates with mental health needs waiting months for a bed at the Wyoming State Hospital in Evanston. Currently, the wait time is about five months.
The two-page bill, which received broad legislative support, gives the health department statutory authority to contract with detention centers—authority it previously lacked. The reimbursement model mirrors one that allows the Wyoming Department of Corrections to pay counties for housing inmates awaiting transfer to state facilities.
The state budget, which Gordon signed Thursday, includes $5 million over two years for these reimbursements.
“This does not make a perfect system,” Health Department Director Stefan Johansson said at the signing ceremony. “These are tough issues.”
The new law is one of several efforts to address mental health in Wyoming’s justice system. Other initiatives include a telepsychiatry program giving officers access to remote clinicians, and a pilot program connecting mentally ill people charged with low-level misdemeanors to community treatment rather than jail.
State employee pay raises approved by the Legislature are also expected to aid recruiting efforts at the hospital, which faces staffing shortages.
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