On a recent Monday morning, Chief Defender Doug Wilson said six of the eight inmates in the Aurora municipal jail were flagged with a “Code 9,” which signifies the person may be experiencing some kind of mental health issue. 

That’s been the norm since Wilson arrived in Aurora in 2020. He said he quickly found that there weren’t any resources for local inmates experiencing mental health problems — which likely caused the person to be sitting in jail in the first place — so he started brainstorming with staff at the Aurora Mental Health Center. 

The answer was a program called Aurora Sustained, and the premise is fairly straightforward: Four days a week, a trio of forensic psychology graduate students from the University of Denver arrive at the detention center at 7 a.m. and evaluate inmates for any behavioral health issues prior to seeing a judge. They provide crisis services information, talk about treatment options and make a plan.