By Jill Nolin | Editor
One of the big surprises from this year’s legislative session was the announcement that lawmakers would fund a $409 million state-run psychiatric hospital that would primarily serve Georgians in the criminal justice system.
Senate GOP leaders touted the project at a state Capitol press conference alongside several local sheriffs, who have been keeping people with severe mental health conditions in their jails for lengthy periods of time as they wait for a spot to open up at a state-run hospital.
Advocates say they recognize the need for the hospital but caution against a potential slide back toward institutionalization. The head of the state agency over the hospital acknowledged those concerns and says he hopes it will be a “bright place of healing.”
The Georgia Regional Hospital, a state-operated psychiatric hospital managed by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities in DeKalb County. Alander Rocha/Georgia Recorder
MENTAL HEALTH
By Ellie Fivas
After spending 16 years moving away from a psychiatric care system centered on institutionalization, state officials are preparing to build Georgia’s largest state hospital in decades.
More than 700 Georgians in the criminal justice system are currently waiting for a spot in a state psychiatric facility, according to Kevin Tanner, commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. That’s why state lawmakers made room for $409 million in the budget for a 300-bed forensic state hospital, which will be built near Georgia Regional Hospital, located in south DeKalb County, during the 2026 legislative session earlier this year.
The waiting list is putting pressure on county jails across Georgia. According to Tanner, the hospital will serve only forensic patients — people who have a mental illness or disability and have been charged with or convicted of a crime.
Earl Williams, community development director of the Thomasville Community Development Corp., stands in front of a building the city hoped would be turned into a healthcare clinic in Dewey City. The predominantly Black neighborhood in Thomasville, Georgia, faces blight and health challenges. (Briah Lumpkins/KFF Health News)
PUBLIC HEALTH
By Briah Lumpkins, KFF Health News
As Earl Williams drove through a historic Black neighborhood known as Dewey City in his hometown, he hardly recognized what he saw.
Homes that once belonged to friends, family, and neighbors had siding covered in mold. Some were boarded up. Others had holes in their roofs.
Black churches once used Oquina Creek, which runs along the border of the neighborhood, to baptize their congregants. Today, fecal bacteria and other contaminants have made the water unsafe due to an aging wastewater system.
“Sometimes you get the feeling like you’re in a Third World country,” Williams said.
VOTING
By Sam Gauntt
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened on Friday to prosecute election officials in Democratic states that don’t “participate in securing the elections” ahead of the November midterms.
Election officials who do not comply with administration directives to enhance security of voting machines and to share voter data with the federal government through the powerful Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements computer program would be subject to fines and even prison time, he said.
“If the states that choose not to participate with the SAVE program and they choose not to participate in securing the elections, we will make sure that we make those states a priority to look at who voted in their states, and hold the election officials accountable,” Mullin said during a press conference.
News tips, feedback, question? Email us: [email protected]
MORE FROM OUR DC BUREAU
ICYMI FROM THE RECORDER
Thanks for reading The Daily Record. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.