Louisiana asks for $348 million to replace its 170-year-old state hospital, where nearly all patients arrive through the courts
NOLA.com reported on the health department's capital request to replace Eastern Louisiana Mental Health System, one of only two state-run mental hospitals left in Louisiana. The department said the facility's buildings, roads and utilities are in a deplorable and rapidly deteriorating condition and are unsafe and not conducive to a therapeutic environment.
Nearly all of the hospital's patients arrive after being deemed incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity, which leaves virtually no beds for people not charged with crimes. As courts ordered more inmates transferred from jails, the census grew from 555 in 2014 to more than 640 in 2018. The department declined to release reports of violence or patient deaths, citing privacy, but litigation and a hospital inspection revealed problems including a lawsuit over a 2016 patient suicide.
Source: Louisiana's 170-year-old mental hospital is 'quickly deteriorating' with more than 600 patients inside — NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune | The Advocate, by Katherine Sayre
← Back to the map