RELEASE: July 28, 2000

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Ann Klein Forensic Center Expansion Complete

Commissioner Michele K. Guhl today announced that the 50-bed expansion to the Ann Klein Forensic Center (AKFC) in Trenton has been completed and the hospital will begin accepting new admissions on July 31.

The center, which will now have a 200-bed capacity, serves psychiatric patients exhibiting violent behavior or with criminal histories who require a secure hospital setting.

The expansion enables the department to implement one of the recommendations of the Governor’s Task Force for the Review of the Treatment of the Criminally Insane in New Jersey and to no longer serve certain patients with criminal backgrounds or who have committed violent acts at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris County.

"With this expansion, we are delivering on a promise we made to the Governor's Task Force and its chairman Senator Robert Martin three years ago," said Guhl. "The Ann Klein Forensic Center is an appropriate facility for patients requiring more specialized treatment in a secure setting. In addition, these new beds will help us reduce the census at Greystone and it will free Greystone from providing the special security measures for those types of patients."

Effective July 31, the department has changed psychiatric hospital admissions policy so that county jail inmates requiring inpatient evaluation or treatment, patients convicted of a serious violent criminal offense, and patients being evaluated for, or determined incompetent to stand trial will no longer be admitted to Greystone. Instead, these patients will be served at the Ann Klein Forensic Center. Patients now at Greystone who meet these criteria are being assessed for possible transfers to the Ann Klein Center. It is anticipated that some current patients will require court approval before their transfer, and that several months may be required for this process to be fully implemented.

Beginning Monday July 31, the Ann Klein Forensic Center will begin accepting admissions of these patients from the state's northern counties -- Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Passaic, Sussex and Warren -- who previously would have been admitted to Greystone. The Ann Klein Center will accommodate those types of patients from 13 north and central counties of the state, while Ancora Psychiatric Hospital will continue to serve these types of patients from the eight southernmost counties.

The Ann Klein Forensic Center, formerly known as the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital, opened in November 1995 and included the infrastructure to support the newly added beds. The expansion was a $7.5 million project and required two years to design and construct.

Construction of the new beds is in direct response to recommendations from the Governor’s Task Force for the Review of the Treatment of the Criminally Insane in New Jersey. The Task Force, chaired by Senator Robert Martin, issued recommendations in October 1997 addressing the care and treatment of psychiatric patients convicted of violent criminal offenses, on legal detainers, or violent and repetitive sexual offenders.

On September 27, 1998, in legislation sponsored by Senators Martin and Littell, the Department of Human Services was granted the authority to designate which state hospitals may admit criminally charged or convicted patients. Commissioner Michele K. Guhl issued Administrative Order 1:90 in October 1998 stating that when the additional capacity at AKFC was complete, Greystone would no longer admit those criminally charged or convicted for evaluation or treatment.