Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center

Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center is a maximum-security facility for the mentally ill on Wards Island in New York City,^[1] operated by the New York State Office of Mental Health as one of two psychiatric hospitals in the state that treat felony patients.^[2] The building, described as "fortresslike", is adjacent to the Manhattan Psychiatric Center.^[3] Of its more than 200 patients, 50 are deemed criminally insane; it houses pre-trial detainees unfit to stand trial as well as convicted defendants granted an insanity plea. Among its famous historical inmates was murderer and cannibal Daniel Rakowitz.^[3]

Kirby Forensic Psychiatry Center
New York State Office of Mental Health
The Wards Island psychiatric complex. Kirby occupies one of the three buildings.
Geography
Location	New York City, New York, United States
Organization
Funding	Public hospital
Type	Specialist
Services
Beds	>200
Speciality	Psychiatric hospital
Links
Website	omh.ny.gov/omhweb/facilities/krpc/
Lists	Hospitals in New York State

History

The Manhattan State Hospital was founded on Wards Island in 1899 as the largest psychiatric institution in the world. By the 1960s the number of patients had declined, and in December 1969 the hospital was divided into three centers, one of which was the Kirby Manhattan Psychiatric Center. In 1979 they were re-consolidated into the Manhattan Psychiatric Center. In 1981, the Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center was split off from the center as a specialized facility for treating patients from the criminal justice system,^[4] occupying a 12-story building in the Wards Island complex.^[5]

As of 2019, the state was planning to close the facility and move its patients to the nearby Manhattan Psychiatric Center. The planned move was opposed by the clinicians' union and some of the facility's guards, as the Manhattan Psychiatric Center was not designed to house dangerous patients.^[3] Employees described the facility as a dangerous place to work;^[3] in a two-year period before 2014, there were 433 assaults by patients.^[6] In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital took in extra admissions to help the city's overburdened regular hospital system.^[7] State-run psychiatric hospitals were among the hardest-hit institutions in the early phase of the pandemic.^[8]

References

1. "Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center". New York State Office of Mental Health. Archived from the original on 6 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
2. Hattem, Ben (27 July 2015). "How New York's mentally ill get lost in courts, jails and hospitals". Al Jazeera America. Archived from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
3. Correal, Annie (13 December 2019). "Why Workers Fear Moving 50 Criminally Insane Patients". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
4. Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. (2010). The Encyclopedia of New York City (2nd ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 793. ISBN 978-0-300-11465-2.
5. Smothers, Ronald (17 February 1982). "The Death of a Psychiatric Patient: The Gray Area of Restraint". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 March 2022. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
6. Seagar, Stephen (10 November 2014). "Where Hell Is Other Patients". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
7. Geringer-Sameth, Ethan (5 May 2021). "During Pandemic Peak, Psychiatric Patients Were Rushed Into Institutions". Gotham Gazette. Archived from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
8. Geringer-Sameth, Ethan (17 April 2020). "10 Dead, Hundreds Infected as State Psychiatric Facilities Become Another Crisis Point in Coronavirus Outbreak". Gotham Gazette. Archived from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.

Further reading

• Sternberg, Richard R. (2020). By Reason of Insanity. IPBooks. ISBN 978-1-94-909359-9.

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