HELENA — Criminal patients at the overcrowded Montana State Hospital will soon be moved to a secure mental health facility.
Lee Newspapers of Montana reports that the state will move people committed to the state hospital through the criminal justice system to a new mental health facility set up in the former Reintegrating Youth Offenders building in Galen.
Such patients are currently kept in the hospital’s D wing, which is licensed to hold 32 people but often has more than 50.
The lease for the new facility begins Feb. 1 and lasts through 2035. It will have 60 beds total, including six beds to keep women separate.
Gov. Steve Bullock’s budget director, Dan Villa, says the facility is in the process of adding staff members, enhancing cameras and making other upgrades.
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