State Says Releasing Psychiatric Patients Too Risky Despite Covid

California’s Department of State Hospitals says patients are too dangerous to be released from its largest psychiatric hospital—and that the agency doesn’t have the authority to do so even if it wanted to, despite a recent surge in Covid-19 infections.

Court documents filed late Tuesday offer a preview of arguments set for Jan. 12 in a lawsuit brought on behalf of patients at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino.

An advocacy group has asked the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to order the release of as many as half the patients housed in Patton after a ...