Florida State Hospital - Current Population

Current Population

The hospital treats individuals with severe and persistent major mental illnesses. There are two categories of patients at the hospital; those civilly committed under Statute 394, who represent a small portion of the hospital's residents, and those forensically committed under Statute 916. The Civil portion of the hospital houses adult and elderly individuals who have been civilly committed to the hospital, and forensic residents who have been "stepped down" to the civil unit. The civil units are also known as Forensic Transition units. Florida State Hospital also maintains a forensic wing for the Florida Department of Corrections to care for inmates who have been adjudicated through the criminal justice system to be incompetent to proceed, or not guilty by reason of insanity. The current maximum housing capacity is 491 residents in civil units and 646 residents in forensic units.

The goal of the hospital's efforts are recovery. The hospital aims to restore competency to residents adjudicated incompetent to proceed to trial. Residents receive competency training in both forensic and civil units. The amount of time needed to restore competency varies from a month or two, to up to five years. However, by statute, a patient cannot be committed for more than five years as incompetent to proceed and upon five years of commitment that patient will be returned to court to have his/her charges dropped or commutted in some way. For residents adjudicated not guilty by reason of insanity the hospital aims to assist the resident in transitioning back into community living by learning appropriate activities for daily living and social cues. Hospital staff ensure the resident is no longer at risk of reoffending before recommending to the judge that the patient is ready for a conditional release to the community. Unlike patients committed as Incompetent to Proceed, those committed as Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity have no time limit on their commitment and can remain committed by their presiding judge until their recovery is complete.