A Times/Herald-Tribune Investigation
Insane.
Invisible.
In danger.
Florida cut $100 million from its mental hospitals. Chaos quickly followed.
Florida’s state-funded mental hospitals are supposed to be safe places to care for people who are a danger to themselves or others. But years of neglect and deep budget cuts transformed them into treacherous warehouses where violent patients roam the halls with no supervision and workers are left on their own to oversee dozens of people. Now, no one is safe inside.
Florida’s Mental Hospitals
Florida State Hospital
100 N Main St., Chattahoochee
Beds: 959
Florida’s oldest and largest mental hospital houses some of the state’s most dangerous patients on a 620-acre campus. More than 700 beds go to people charged with a crime but who have been deemed incompetent. Another 240 beds are for people not charged but ruled a danger to themselves or others.
Northeast Florida State Hospital
7487 State Road 121, Macclenny
Beds: 613
The hospital opened in 1959 to relieve overcrowding at Florida State Hospital. It treats mentally ill adults who are suicidal and need long-term care, along with incompetent criminal defendants. Defendants are not segregated from other patients and often are free to move about the campus.
North Florida Evaluation and Treatment Center
1200 NE 55th Blvd., Gainesville
Beds: 193
This maximum security mental hospital opened in 1976 and was originally designed for sex offenders. It now caters to mentally ill men who have been charged with a crime and deemed incompetent.
Treasure Coast Forensic Treatment Center
96 SW Allapatah Road, Indiantown
Managed by Correct Care Recovery Solutions LLC
Beds: 208
Opened in April 2007, it is one of the state’s most modern maximum security hospitals. It caters exclusively to mentally ill men charged with a crime. In 2014, it was bought by Correct Care Recovery Solutions, a private prison management company based in Nashville, Tenn. Patients are housed in single rooms and have less freedom of movement than in older, state-run facilities.
South Florida State Hospital
800 E Cypress Drive, Pembroke Pines
Managed by Correct Care Recovery Solutions LLC
Beds: 341
The hospital opened in 1957 on the grounds of a World War II military base. It was investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice in the 1970s for allegations of patient abuse and sexual misconduct. In 1998, the Florida Legislature turned management over to a private company.
South Florida Evaluation and Treatment Center
18680 SW 376th St., Florida City
Managed by Correct Care Recovery Solutions LLC
Beds: 238
Opened in 1986, the hospital serves mentally ill men and women charged with crimes. Originally a state-run facility, it is now operated privately, under contract with the state.
Developments
About the story
A team of reporters and data specialists from the Tampa Bay Times and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune spent more than a year investigating Florida’s largest state mental hospitals. Reporters interviewed dozens of current and former employees, then crisscrossed the state to talk to mental patients and their families.
They also collected thousands of pages of incident reports, health and safety inspections and investigative files from state agencies and police departments across Florida. Using those records, the reporters created the first comprehensive database of injuries and violent episodes at Florida’s mental hospitals.
About the writers
Leonora LaPeter Anton is an enterprise reporter for the Tampa Bay Times. She has worked as a reporter in Florida for more than 25 years. [email protected]
Michael Braga is the investigations editor at the Herald-Tribune and has been a reporter in Florida for 20 years. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting in 2010. [email protected]
