CO Code § 27-65-117 (2021)
2021 Colorado Code|Title 27 - Behavioral Health|Article 65 - Care and Treatment of Persons With Mental Health Disorders|§ 27-65-117. Rights of Persons Receiving Evaluation, Care, or Treatment

  Each person receiving evaluation, care, or treatment under any provision of this article has the following rights and shall be advised of such rights by the facility:   To receive and send sealed correspondence. No incoming or outgoing correspondence shall be opened, delayed, held, or censored by the personnel of the facility.    To have access to letter-writing materials, including postage, and to have staff members of the facility assist him or her if unable to write, prepare, and mail correspondence;    To have ready access to telephones, both to make and to receive calls in privacy;    To have frequent and convenient opportunities to meet with visitors. Each person may see his or her attorney, clergyman, or physician at any time.    To wear his or her own clothes, keep and use his or her own personal possessions, and keep and be allowed to spend a reasonable sum of his or her own money.       A person's rights under subsection (1) of this section may be denied for good cause only by the professional person providing treatment. Denial of any right shall in all cases be entered into the person's treatment record. Information pertaining to a denial of rights contained in the person's treatment record shall be made available, upon request, to the person or his or her attorney.    No person admitted to or in a facility shall be fingerprinted unless required by other provisions of law.    A person may be photographed upon admission for identification and the administrative purposes of the facility. The photographs shall be confidential and shall not be released by the facility except pursuant to court order. No other nonmedical photographs shall be taken or used without appropriate consent or authorization.    Any person receiving evaluation or treatment under any of the provisions of this article is entitled to a written copy of all his or her rights enumerated in this section, and a minor child shall receive written notice of his or her rights as provided in section 27-65-103 (7)(g). A list of such rights shall be prominently posted in all evaluation and treatment facilities.     History. Source: L. 2010: Entire article added with relocations,(SB 10-175), ch. 188, p. 693, § 2, effective April 29.    Editor's note:   This section is similar to former § 27-10-117 as it existed prior to 2010.   Cross references:   For rights of persons in custody upon criminal charges, see part 4 of article 3 of title 16.   ANNOTATION   Law reviews. For article, “Patients' Rights vs. Patients' Needs: The Right of the Mentally Ill to Refuse Treatment in Colorado”, see 58 Den. L.J. 567 (1981). For article, “Legislative Update”, see 13 Colo. Law. 1419 (1984). For article, “In re Romero: Sterilization and Competency”, see 68 Den. U. L. Rev. 105 (1991).   Annotator's note. Since § 27-65-117 is similar to § 27-10-117 as it existed prior to the 2010 amendments to this article, relevant cases construing that provision have been included in the annotations to this section.   Treatment to be as minimally restrictive as practicable. The primary purpose of a civil commitment is to secure such treatment as is suited to the needs of the person under conditions which are as least restrictive of liberty as practicable. People v. Chavez, 629 P.2d 1040 (Colo. 1981).   Applied in Goedecke v. State Dept. of Insts., 198 Colo. 407 , 603 P.2d 123 (1979).