Hundreds of millions of dollars in state budget cuts have turned state-funded mental hospitals from refuges for those who need treatment to “treacherous warehouses where violence is out of control and patients can’t get the care they need,” the Tampa Bay Times and Sarasota Herald-Tribune report. The newspapers’ investigation found that “violent attacks at the state’s six largest hospitals have doubled,” since 2009, resulting in at least 15 deaths. In a state where there are no minimum staffing requirements for mental institutions, “violent patients wander the halls unsupervised,” according to the investigation.
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