| NORTH DAKOTA STATE HOSPITAL WHEREAS, the proposed downsizing of the North Dakota State Hospital is taking the state in a direction of decreased service offering no safety net to the mentally ill; and WHEREAS, other states have attempted the downsizing of their state hospitals and have discovered they need to rebuild their state hospitals as a safety net for the mentally ill at an additional cost to state budgets; and WHEREAS, the North Dakota State Hospital administration and the Department of Human Services have decided that they will cut state employee jobs and transfer positions to the North Dakota Department of Corrections, and WHEREAS, quality patient care will suffer with the continued encroachment of a prison system on the campus of the North Dakota State Hospital; and WHEREAS, patients will have less access to the campus because the prison will be occupy most of the buildings that will limit the ability of the patients to move around campus, and WHEREAS, there has been limited public discussion within the community of Jamestown and the surrounding area on the issue of expanding prisons in North Dakota and decreasing the use of the North Dakota State Hospital; and THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED: That South Central Citizens Coalition support the NDPEA, AFT effort to advocate for the patients and employees of the North Dakota State Hospital, and THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED: That South Central Citizens Coalition will continue to support the State Hospital Employees in their effort to influence the Legislature to return the State Hospital Budget as proposed by Governor Hoeven, and to fund the two year study as submitted in SB2300 by Senator April Fairfield. |