Florida State Hospital is a hospital and mental institution in Chattahoochee, Florida. Established in 1876, it was until 1947 Florida's only state mental institution. It currently has a capacity of 1,042 patients. The hospital's current Administration Building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The facility's property previously served as a military arsenal during the Seminole Wars and the American Civil War, and later became the site of Florida's first state prison. It was subsequently refurbished as a mental hospital, originally known as Florida State Hospital for the Insane, which opened in 1876. It gained notoriety over the course of its long history, and was involved in the U.S. Supreme Court case O'Connor v. Donaldson, in which the Court found that the hospital had illegally confined one of its patients. The decision gave momentum to the deinstitutionalization movement, which saw the closure of many mental institutions in the country. Currently the hospital treats patients with severe mental disabilities who have been civilly or forensically committed to the institution.
Read more about Florida State Hospital: Early History, Hospital, Current Population, Competency To Be Executed, Historic Place, Notable Inmates
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