For the Forgotten Patients

Stop the Violence. Stop the Silence

My book Behind the Gates of Gomorrah, a year with the Criminally Insane, was released world wide this morning by Simon and Schuster. I’m a psychiatrist and a writer. My book tells the story of my first year working at Napa State Hospital, in California, where patients who’ve committed crimes during the course of a severe mental illness are sent for treatment.
Behind the Gates of Gomorrah details what a violent dangerous place Napa State Hospital has become. More than 3,000 assaults occur per year within its walls. Some estimates run as high as 10,000. The patients absorb the brunt of the violence, but the staff also get hurt - people have been crippled. They have been killed.
Most of us are unaware of this problem. The hospital has a culture of silence and little has been said about the violence. Until now.
I’m advocating for change, hoping that by exposing this epidemic, the hospital might become a safer place for everyone. The patients in particular concern me - many have been locked away for years, some forgotten by anyone outside the hospital walls.
The violence at state mental hospitals is not just a California problem. All fifty states have these same kind of hospitals with the same problems. So, if you are able, please share this information with others. I invite you to read the headline story for the online news site, The Daily Beast on September 15th, or to watch “CNN Tonight” at 7:00 PT and 10:00 ET, Sept 16th (tonight). I will be the show’s only guest. Please checkout my website: Stephenseager.com. I invite you buy my book and read my patient’s stories for yourself. It’s available everywhere.
My patients need a voice. I ask you to listen.