AUGUSTA (AP) — Gov. Paul LePage’s administration has revived a proposal that offers an alternative to housing violent or difficult-to-manage mental health patients.
The Portland Press Herald reports the newly proposed legislation, L.D. 1577, would send those patients to a special unit at the Maine State Prison in Warren instead of housing them at Augusta’s Riverview Psychiatric Center.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services has been pressured by state lawmakers and federal regulators to find a place other than Riverview for the courts to send “forensic” patients.
LePage on Monday called the bill a chance for the Legislature to correct its alteration of the initial proposal in 2013.
Following opposition, the 2013 proposal was amended to not include language allowing forensic transfers from Riverview to the prison.
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