Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center

{{Infobox hospital

| name = Kirby Forensic Psychiatry Center

| org/group = New York State Office of Mental Health

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| image = Manhattan Psychiatric Center across Harlem River.jpg

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| caption = The Wards Island psychiatric complex. Kirby occupies one of the three buildings.

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| region = New York City

| state = New York

| country = US

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| funding = Public

| type = Specialist

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| beds = >200

| speciality = Psychiatric hospital

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| website = {{URL|https://omh.ny.gov/omhweb/facilities/krpc/}}

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Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center is a maximum-security facility for the mentally ill on Wards Island in New York City,{{cite web |title = Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center |publisher = New York State Office of Mental Health |url = https://omh.ny.gov/omhweb/facilities/krpc/ |access-date = 27 February 2022 |archive-date = 6 February 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220206053915/https://omh.ny.gov/omhweb/facilities/krpc/ |url-status = live }} operated by the New York State Office of Mental Health as one of two psychiatric hospitals in the state that treat felony patients.{{cite news |last = Hattem |first = Ben |title = How New York's mentally ill get lost in courts, jails and hospitals |date = 27 July 2015 |work = Al Jazeera America |url = http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/7/27/ny-mentally-ill-get-lost-in-the-justice-system.html |access-date = 27 February 2022 |archive-date = 27 February 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220227205842/http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/7/27/ny-mentally-ill-get-lost-in-the-justice-system.html |url-status = live }} The building, described as "fortresslike", is adjacent to the Manhattan Psychiatric Center. 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.

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,{{cite enc-nyc2 |page = 793}} occupying a 12-story building in the Wards Island complex.{{cite news |last = Smothers |first = Ronald |title = The Death of a Psychiatric Patient: The Gray Area of Restraint |date = 17 February 1982 |work = The New York Times |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/17/nyregion/the-death-of-a-psychiatric-patient-the-gray-area-of-restraint.html |access-date = 4 March 2022 |archive-date = 4 March 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220304215716/https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/17/nyregion/the-death-of-a-psychiatric-patient-the-gray-area-of-restraint.html |url-status = live }}

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.{{cite news |last = Correal |first = Annie |title = Why Workers Fear Moving 50 Criminally Insane Patients |date = 13 December 2019 |work = The New York Times |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/nyregion/Kirby-Forensic-Psychiatric-Center.html |access-date = 27 February 2022 |archive-date = 27 February 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220227190005/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/nyregion/Kirby-Forensic-Psychiatric-Center.html |url-status = live }} Employees described the facility as a dangerous place to work; in a two-year period before 2014, there were 433 assaults by patients.{{cite news |last = Seagar |first = Stephen |title = Where Hell Is Other Patients |date = 10 November 2014 |work = The New York Times |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/opinion/where-hell-is-other-patients.html |access-date = 27 February 2022 |archive-date = 27 February 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220227191546/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/opinion/where-hell-is-other-patients.html |url-status = live }} In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital took in extra admissions to help the city's overburdened regular hospital system.{{cite news |last = Geringer-Sameth |first = Ethan |title = During Pandemic Peak, Psychiatric Patients Were Rushed Into Institutions |date = 5 May 2021 |work = Gotham Gazette |url = https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/10415-covid-beds-pandemic-hospitals-institutionalized-psychiatric-patients-institutions |access-date = 27 February 2022 |archive-date = 27 February 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220227205013/https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/10415-covid-beds-pandemic-hospitals-institutionalized-psychiatric-patients-institutions |url-status = live }} State-run psychiatric hospitals were among the hardest-hit institutions in the early phase of the pandemic.{{cite news |last = Geringer-Sameth |first = Ethan |title = 10 Dead, Hundreds Infected as State Psychiatric Facilities Become Another Crisis Point in Coronavirus Outbreak |date = 17 April 2020 |work = Gotham Gazette |url = https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/9321-ten-dead-hundreds-infected-new-york-state-psychiatric-facilities-crisis-coronavirus-outbreak |access-date = 27 February 2022 |archive-date = 27 February 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220227205512/https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/9321-ten-dead-hundreds-infected-new-york-state-psychiatric-facilities-crisis-coronavirus-outbreak |url-status = live }}

Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center

History

References

Further reading