Georgia Senate sets aside $409M for new state mental hospital

The Georgia Senate allocated $409 million in its amended budget to build a state mental health hospital, which would be the first since the 1960s.

State Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, said in a budget hearing Feb. 18 that the state’s police chiefs and sheriffs feel like their jails have become the mental health institutions for the state.

“The Senate does not want to wait,” he said. “We’re asking you to invest almost half a billion dollars, $409 million, to support those sheriffs, to support those police chiefs and to get this problem resolved.”

The 300-bed facility is tentatively planned to be built around Atlanta or Augusta and could take one to two years to build if approved, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting.

Tillery explained the reason the state has not been able to take such measures in the past citing a 2010 settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over the state’s historic treatment of mentally ill people.

In January, the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities announced a joint filing to be released from all behavioral health provisions of the settlement, which will allow the building of the hospital.

“We’ve worked really hard to provide those services and communities,” Sen. Blake Tillery said on Friday while presenting the proposal to the public. “We’ve done a pretty good job. But there are some people who we still need to have in the state’s mental health hospitals.”