news-record.com

HIGH POINT -- One of the key issues in the recent debate about a proposed psychiatric hospital in the Five Points community is exactly who will be behind the walls of the facility.

If GEO Care opens a 90-bed hospital at the former Evergreens nursing home site, it will be designed to accommodate 30 maximum-security patients who have been charged with a violent crime, according to company officials. The remaining patients would consist of those facing charges of nonviolent offenses.

The issue was a flashpoint in the City Council's split vote on a rezoning request last week that kept the site zoned in such a way that will allow the hospital project to proceed.

"I take offense to anyone (on council) who would degrade anyone that's mentally ill or sick; that's wrong," Councilman Mike Pugh said. "But I think we have an obligation to the citizens of this city to know what is going to be housed here."

GEO Care is eyeing High Point because the state is farming out the mental health treatment it provides at places like Dorthea Dix in Raleigh and Central Regional Hospital in Butner.

"The sad fact is that the state of North Carolina has looked at Dorthea Dix and Butner and determined that they are in decrepit condition, and it would cost millions and millions of dollars to modernize them, and they don't want to spend the money," Councilman Jim Corey said. "So instead of spending the money to fix up state facilities, they are basically looking to privatize mental health care in the state."

The maximum-security patients would come in two categories -- those who were found not guilty by reason of insanity and those who cannot be tried because they don't understand the charges against them.

While much of last week's rezoning case involved arguments about the economic benefits of the hospital, which the company says would employ 185 people, some council members focused on GEO Care itself. It's a subsidiary of GEO Group, which was described as a $1.3 billion corporation that operates prisons and hospitals like the one proposed for High Point.

Pugh asked GEO Care President Jorge Dominicis if the company currently is facing any lawsuits.

"We're a very big company. I'm sure that there are some lawsuits. I'm not the general counsel for the company. I really don't know specifically how many lawsuits,"

Dominicis said. "We don't have anything unusual or beyond what a normal company might experience ... or a local government may experience."

Company representatives have said there have been no security breaches at any of its hospitals. "We know exactly what the facility will be," Councilwoman Bernita Sims said. "They told us. We've talked about it on numerous occasions, so I think we've beaten that horse to death."