Hospitals Turn Into Jails

State psychiatric hospitals are increasingly being filled with court‑committed defendants rather than voluntary civil patients. That mix strains staff, fuels violence and escapes, and forces a tradeoff between therapeutic missions and security measures that few hospitals are resourced to manage. — This shift reframes debates over criminal diversion, mental‑health funding, and public safety: treating offenders as patients can overload care systems and produce new public‑safety failures unless policy and resourcing change.