http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2008/08/03/news/local_news/newsstory6.txt

Legislators concerned about moving patients to Sykesville

By Jennifer Jiggetts, Times Staff Writer

Two state legislators say they have concerns about plans for forensic patients from the troubled Rosewood Center in Owings Mills to be moved to a facility on the Springfield Hospital Center campus in Sykesville.

Forensic patients are being held because they’ve been deemed incompetent to stand trial and are not being held criminally responsible for their acts.

Del. Susan Krebs, R-District 9B, and Sen. Allan Kittleman, R-District 9, will have a private meeting Friday with state Health Department officials to discuss the plans for the Sykesville Evaluation and Thera-peutic Treatment Program.

Krebs said she questioned the arrangement to move the Rosewood residents to Sykesville.

The original plans for Rosewood patients called for a separate facility to be built at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, she said. Perkins is a facility in Jessup for people with mental illnesses.

“We’re concerned about security cautions and putting it near an economic center,” she said. “It doesn’t belong there.”

One forensic patient, who’s charged with murder, escaped from the Rosewood facility twice, Krebs said.

“I just have a very, very huge concern over whether it’s appropriate,” Krebs said. “And I don’t think it is.”

Kittleman said the meeting will shed light on the state’s decision to move the residents to Sykesville.

“I am concerned about it, but I just want to talk to people about why they’re doing it this way,” he said. “I can’t say I’m firmly opposed; I just want to make sure I understand.”

The Sykesville Evaluation and Therapeutic Treatment Program will be housed in the Muncie Building on the Springfield facility, near the Warfield Development Corp. The Muncie Building is currently undergoing renovations and plans now call for it to house about 20 court-involved forensic residents.

There currently are forensic patients housed at the Springfield complex, said Karen Black, a spokeswoman with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The facility will have more-secure doors, fencing and security cameras installed.

Twelve residents will come from the Rosewood Center. The eight other residents will come from the court system.

In January, Gov. Martin O’Malley announced that the Rosewood Center would close next June as a result of having critical problems that haven’t been addressed.

The facility in Sykesville will be run by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Developmental Disabilities Ad-ministration.