At least seven young people in Colorado youth detention centers were hospitalized following overdose-related emergency calls this year, including three teens who required life-saving naloxone at a Colorado Springs facility on the same day over the summer.
The Colorado Department of Human Services declined to provide The Denver Post with any information about overdoses at the state’s youth detention facilities, citing child privacy laws. The department says it doesn’t track the number of overdoses, so The Post surveyed fire departments in cities with youth services centers to compile these figures.
The Post found overdose calls in 2024 have come from at least four different state facilities: Spring Creek Youth Service Center in Colorado Springs, Gilliam Youth Services Center in Denver, Marvin W. Foote Youth Services Center in Centennial and the Campus at Lookout Mountain in Golden, which houses four distinct facilities.
It’s not possible to report how many teens overdosed in each of those instances, since fire department records didn’t include the total number of individuals needing medical assistance during each emergency call. But at least seven individuals were hospitalized.
The state’s 15 youth detention facilities house approximately 2,300 young people between the ages of 10 and 21.
The Office of the Child Protection Ombudsman of Colorado in a Nov. 15 letter to the Department of Human Services and Division of Youth Services said it had “serious safety concerns” regarding two particular facilities: Spring Creek and the Platte Valley Youth Services Center in Greeley.
Clients who spoke to the ombudsman’s office alleged “DYS staff have introduced illegal drug contraband into both youth centers and provided drugs directly to youth,” according to the letter.
Nearly 30 youth have ingested these substances, several have overdosed and one youth has died as a result of the drugs being smuggled into the facilities, the letter alleges.
The ombudsman’s office said it learned that this issue was brought to the attention of Division of Youth Services and human services officials over the last several months. Child safety workers expressed concern that these allegations may not have been properly reviewed.
The ombudsman “is concerned that these issues remain unresolved and continue to impact the safety and well-being of youth residing in these youth centers,” the office wrote in the letter.
The most serious drug-related event this year at a Division of Youth Services facility appears to have occurred July 14 at Spring Creek.
Paramedics with the Colorado Springs Fire Department responded to the youth detention facility two different times that day, administering naloxone — a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose — to three individuals, said Ashley Franco, a department spokesperson.
One individual needed five rounds of the drug, she said. In all, emergency responders administered 15 rounds that day.
Two of the three individuals were hospitalized, Franco said.
Paramedics responded Oct. 29 to another overdose at Spring Creek, she said. That individual was also hospitalized.
Emergency personnel also responded to overdose calls on June 24 and 29 at Centennial’s Marvin W. Foote Youth Services Center, records show.
Fire officials did not have additional details for the overdose calls at the other Division of Youth Services facilities.
It’s not clear what death the ombudsman’s office referred to in its letter, and the office declined to elaborate.
A 16-year-old being held at Platte Valley died earlier this month after suffering a “medical emergency,” Greeley police said at the time.
Police had responded that day to reports of a contraband narcotics violations. A department spokesperson would not confirm the death was drug-related, citing the open investigation.
AnneMarie Harper, a spokesperson with the Colorado Department of Humans Services, said the state is not aware of any youth deaths due to overdoses in any Division of Youth Services centers within at least the last 30 years.
The state does not specifically track overdoses, instead recording all “medical emergencies requiring outside medical attention,” which include things like sports injuries and appendectomies. Identifying suspected overdoses that occurred in 2024 would require reviewing every medical emergency from the past 11 months and confirming the details in each youth’s individual medical chart, Harper said.
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The department refused to provide more details about the Spring Creek incidents or any other overdose incident, citing child privacy laws.
Drug-related incidents do occur in youth centers, Harper said. When an emergency arises, the fire department or EMS is contacted and any concerns or suspicions of staff are shared with responders.
“Ensuring the safety and well-being of youth in our care remains the division’s highest priority,” Harper said in an email.
Stephanie Villafuerte, the state’s child protection ombudsman, said she’s “tremendously disturbed” by The Post’s findings and reports from youth in these facilities.
“If true, it would indicate this problem is widespread,” she said in an interview Tuesday. “We have really urgent concerns about the safety and well-being of the youth in these facilities.”
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