The State - News from Oct. 3, 1985

The U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation into the way patients are treated at Napa State Hospital, an institution that recorded two violent deaths in the last year. The investigators, experts on hospital operations from the department’s Civil Rights Division, are looking into Napa’s policies on use of medication and restraints, safety conditions and the growing problem of patient violence. Napa is one of only about a dozen such institutions to be looked into by the Justice Department since 1980, department spokeswoman Amy Brown said. In addition to the two deaths, the hospital had several injuries caused by patient assault.