The Justice Department's list of problems in Georgia's state hospitals amounted to a scathing attack on the state psychiatric hospitals which have been investigated on and off by different government agencies since 1999. Suicides, razors, sexual assaults, general mayhem and gang fights on the adolescent unit, and the inappropriate hospitalization of those with developmental disabilities are among the specifics in a 65-page letter to Gov. Sonny Perdue. The lengthy investigation included all aspects of the system despite Georgia's challenge of the Civil Rights Division jurisdiction over "admissions, intake and 'short-term outpatient' units."
Last year a series documenting abuse in the Atlanta Journal Constitution set off the investigation on which this report is based.
