Coalinga State Hospital (CSH) is a state mental hospital in Coalinga, California.
The facility opened on September 5, 2005; the newest state hospital to be constructed in California in more than 50 years. It is a maximum security civil-commitment facility built to ensure that sexually violent predators stay out of the community. Currently, the hospital houses 941 sexually violent predators and 200 mentally disordered offenders. The hospital also houses approximately 50 mentally ill prisoners from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), but the California Department of State Hospitals aims to designate CSH as a civil-commitment facility only.
Treatment is offered, but is not required. Approximately 1/3 of individuals accept California's sex offender treatment. The hospital has a 1,500-bed capacity (as of April 2016, the hospital is 99% full). The median age of the committed sexually violent predators is 47.1 and this is expected to increase as the hospital's population continues to age.
About the facility
The state began construction on Coalinga State Hospital in the fall of 2001. According to the hospital's official Web site, CSH has 1.2 million gross square feet (gsf) of floor space. This includes 900,000 gsf for clinical services and programs, 158,000 gsf for support services, 75,000 gsf for administration, and 67,000 gsf for plant operations. The hospital is located at the edge of the Coastal Mountain Range in the heart of California just outside the City of Coalinga in proximity to the Pleasant Valley State Prison. The annual operating budget of CSH is over $200 million (i.e. over $200,000 per "patient").
The patient population consists of those who are deemed to suffer from: "volitional impairment" and dangerousness (in that they are likely to re-offend not of their own free choice).
Intake and occupancy
In California all prisoners convicted of sexual assault or child sexual abuse are flagged and reviewed six months prior to parole. To be classified as a sexually violent predator, an individual must have at least one identified victim, have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness resulting in volitional impairment (most commonly paraphilia or pedophilia), and must have established a relationship with a person with the intent to cause victimization. If both evaluators agree that the prisoner meets the criteria, he is to be committed to a hospital for treatment. If one agrees and the other does not, an additional two evaluators review the prisoner's history. If those final two reach agreement, the prisoner is considered a ward of the state and civilly committed to CSH.
California law allows sexually violent predators to be committed to the hospital indefinitely (under Jessica's Law) while they are receiving treatment. Three-quarters of CSH's 850-plus detainees refuse to participate in a core treatment program, undermining a central piece of Coalinga State Hospital's purported mission. The vast majority refuse to participate beyond the first phase of a five-phase therapy regimen. Only 25 to 30 percent of sexually violent predators consent to participate in the active phases of California's sex offender treatment program.
Treatment is intensive, and requires admission of guilt and the use of institutionally mandated language, as well as polygraph and phallometric testing. As of April 2009 the facility had released only 13 inmates in its history. A federal judge ruled a similar program in Minnesota to be unconstitutional.
Representation in other media
Filmmaker Louis Theroux directed a BBC television documentary based on Coalinga Hospital; it is entitled A Place for Paedophiles (2009), showing the lives of CSH patients who are indefinitely incarcerated at the hospital. The one-hour program first aired on BBC Two in the United Kingdom on 19 April 2009, and in Australia in December 2012, as the seventh in a series of Theroux specials. This special will not be shown in the United States. Patient health care laws, primarily the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), forbid the disclosure in the US of a person's illness (including mental health issues) without their consent. These laws only apply within the U.S., so that is why the show is allowed to be shown outside the U.S.
See also
- Sex offender registries in the United States
References
External links
- Official website
- OSHPD database project: Coalinga State Hospital in the CA Healthcare Atlas
- "BBC iPlayer: "A Place for Paedophiles" by Louis Theroux." (Adobe Flash). (Subscription required (help)).Â
