Coalinga State Hospital
| Coalinga State Hospital | |
|---|---|
| California Department of State Hospitals | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Coalinga, Fresno County, California, United States |
| Services | |
| Beds | 1260 |
| History | |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Links | |
| Website | www |
| Lists | Hospitals in California |
Coalinga State Hospital (CSH) is a state mental hospital in Coalinga, California.
The facility opened on September 5, 2005 and was California's newest state hospital, the first to be constructed in the state 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. Instead of being released after completing their prison sentences, they are transferred to CSH. Currently, the hospital houses 850 sexually violent predators (SVPs) 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. The SVPs are men who fall under the SVP laws (first Megan's Law and later Jessica's Law), where the men are deemed too likely to reoffend to be released and are housed indefinitely at the hospital until they are deemed no longer a danger to the community.
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 SVPs is 47.1 and this is expected to increase as the hospital's population continues to age.
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.
Instead of calling the population housed at CSH "patients" or "inmates," hospital policy is to call them "individuals" because they are civilly-committed. Staff are supposed to address the individuals by their last names (i.e., Mr. Jones) to maintain professional boundaries. Several SVP patients identify as Transgender and are supposed to be addressed as Miss.
The hospital is located at the edge of the Coastal Mountain Range in the heart of California just outside the City of Coalinga. It is next to Pleasant Valley State Prison.
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