The first hearing by the Select Committee on State Hospital Safety, to be held in the Capitol from 2 to 4 p.m., comes 10 months after a psychiatric technician was slain at Napa State Hospital, lifting a veil on violent conditions for patients and staff at the facilities statewide.
Allen, a former psychiatric nurse and first-term lawmaker, has taken a strong interest in the system, shadowing workers recently on some of Napa State Hospital's most dangerous units to better understand conditions and hosting a forum in January with state Sen. Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) to hear hundreds of employees air concerns about increasingly violent conditions.
About 92% of the hospital population has been accused or convicted of committing a crime as a result of their mental illness. Some commit violence because of predatory sociopathic tendencies, others because of psychosis triggered by severe mental illness such as schizophrenia. Many are not assaultive but become victims of regular aggression.
Although the federal government imposed court-ordered reforms in 2006 to improve conditions in California hospitals, many of the facilities -- in addition to Napa, they are in Coalinga, Norwalk, San Bernardino and Atascadero -- have since experienced a rise in violence.
Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley lifted a hiring freeze for the hospitals earlier this year because of safety concerns, but progress has been slow. A number of positions for hospital police officers have been budgeted but not yet filled.
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