Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center is a maximum-security facility for the mentally ill on Wards Island in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, operated by the

New York State Office of Mental Health The Department of Mental Hygiene is a component of the New York state government composed of three autonomous offices: *the Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS) *the Office of Mental Health (OMH) *the Office for People With Develo ...

as one of two psychiatric hospitals in the state that treat felony patients. The building, described as "fortresslike", is adjacent to the

Manhattan Psychiatric Center The Manhattan Psychiatric Center is a New York-state run psychiatric hospital on Wards Island in New York City. As of 2009, it was licensed for 509 beds, but holds only around 200 patients. The current building is 17 stories tall. The building st ...

. Of its more than 200 patients, 50 are deemed

criminally insane The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to an episodic psychiatric disease at the time of the c ...

; 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

. 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, occupying a 12-story building in the Wards Island complex. 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. Employees described the facility as a dangerous place to work; in a two-year period before 2014, there were 433 assaults by patients. In April 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, the hospital took in extra admissions to help the city's overburdened regular hospital system. State-run psychiatric hospitals were among the hardest-hit institutions in the early phase of the pandemic.

History

References

Further reading