Investigation: Ohio's psychiatric hospitals are now dominated by the criminal justice system
A joint investigation by The Marshall Project and KFF Health News found the share of criminally-involved patients in Ohio's state psychiatric hospitals rose from roughly 50 percent in 2002 to about 90 percent today, even as total hospital capacity shrank by half over the same period. Median wait for a bed reached 37 days as of May 2025.
The investigation also documented nine patient escapes from Ohio hospitals in the first ten months of 2024, compared with three total in the prior four years, and federal investigators found patient deaths including two suicides within six months at one facility — findings that helped prompt a legislative response two months later extending the state's maximum restoration-commitment period.
Source: Criminally Ill: Systemic Failures Turn State Mental Hospitals Into Prisons — The Marshall Project, by Sarah Jane Tribble, KFF Health News, and Doug Livingston, The Marshall Project
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