Atascadero State Hospital
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 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (August 2007) |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Place | Atascadero California, (US) |
| Organization | |
| Care System | Psychiatric |
| Hospital Type | Forensic psychiatry |
| Affiliated University | Long Beach State University |
| Services | |
| Emergency Dept. | None |
| Beds | 1239 |
| History | |
| Founded | 1954 |
| Links | |
| Website | Homepage |
| See also | Hospitals in California |
Atascadero State Hospital (ASH) is located on the central coast of California, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. It is an all-male, maximum-security facility, that has patients from all over the state.
Contents |
[edit] History
ASH opened in 1954, as a state run, self-contained public sector forensic psychiatric facility. It is enclosed within a security perimeter, and licensed by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). Patients are referred to the hospital by the Superior Court, Board of Prison Terms, or the Department of Corrections.
In 1998, ASH won the Ernest A.Codman Award in the Hospital Category.[1]
[edit] Inmate murder
On March 30, 2008, the first homicide in the hospital's history occurred when 44 year-old inmate Earl McKee strangled a fellow inmate, 37 year-old Lawrence Rael to death with a knotted towel. McKee was originally institutionalized as a "Mentally Disordered Offender". Last year, after making abusive threats to other inmantes, he was reclassified as a "Sexually Violent Predator". The murder came in the wake of federal court mandated changes that reduced the usage of medication and restraints on patients as well as a large turnover in staffing resulting in less experienced personnel working at the hospital.[2]
[edit] Commitment categories
- Incompetent to Stand Trial
- Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity
- Department of Corrections patients transferred for evaluation
- Mentally Disordered Offenders
- Sexually Violent Predators[3]
[edit] Current status
Atascadero State Hospital is currently under renovation and is in the process of shipping the remaining few dozen sexually violent predators to Coalinga State Hospital (CSH), which was built specifically to house and treat SVPs. More than 600 SVPs have already been transferred to CSH, and the state wants all SVPs at CSH by mid-2008.
[edit] Employees, staff and officers
ASH employs a staff of over 1,800, with on-site training programs for a variety of schools, including nurse practitioner programs, clinical psychology internship programs, and psychiatric technician training.
The Executive Director of ASH is Jon DeMorales.
[edit] References
- ^ Atascadero State Hospital. The Joint Commision. Retrieved on 2007-08-01.
- ^ Romney, Lee (April 4), “Patient's slaying rattles hospital”, Los Angeles Times: B1
- ^ Atascadero State Hospital: Legal Commitments. Retrieved on 2007-08-01.
