PD Editorial: A safety crisis at Napa State Hospital

State Sen. Noreen Evans and Assemblyman Michael Allen have called the situation at Napa State Hospital "unacceptable."

Horrific may be the better term.

Either way, the two legislators, who urged Gov. Jerry Brown this week to quickly address the safety issues at the Napa facility, are justified in appealing for quick action.

Workers at the Napa State Hospital have long feared for their safety given the steady increase in the number of violent criminals being sent there through the criminal justice system. But concerns have reached a critical levels since the death in October of a 54-year-old hospital employee named Donna Gross. Gross, a psychiatric technician, allegedly was strangled in a patio area by a patient, 37-year-old Jess Massey, who has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge.

Two months later, another hospital employee, George Anderson, 60, suffered four fractures to his face and skull in an attack by another inmate. The alleged assailant, 24-year-old Sean Michael Bouchie, a patient who reportedly suffers from hallucinations, has been charged in the attack. A month ago, another hospital employee, a nurse, was the victim of an attempted rape.

Then, on Monday, another death occurred when a 47-year-old patient suffered cardiac arrest after being subdued by staff members. The Napa County Coroner's Office says the patient was the victim of "extremely poor cardiac health," and no charges are expected to be filed. The inmate reportedly was attacking another inmate when he was subdued.

As these episodes point out, this situation is past the point of crisis, and hospital workers are justified in protesting the state's slow response.

"Quite simply, this on-going situation in our state hospitals is unacceptable - and deadly," Evans and Allen wrote to the governor.

They called on Brown to direct California Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley and Department of Mental Health Acting Director Cliff Allenby to personally address the issue of safety at Napa and four other state hospitals.

But the solutions are not easy. The primary problem is that the Napa State Hospital was built 137 years ago, and it was not created to a prison for potentially violent inmates.

Nevertheless, hospital employees are caught in the middle, paying the price for California's failure to maintain mental health facilities and prisons in any sensible way.

As Evans and Allen noted, "it is time we have laws, regulations, and on-site practices employed that reflect this new reality for our state hospitals .

.

." These reforms are needed now, before any more lives are lost amid this new reality.

These reforms are needed now, before any more lives are lost amid this new reality.