>> no is now the hospital a dangerous place? day that a homicide and two violent attacks all targeting staff members in the past six months and is not the first time it has happened. that is straight ahead tonight on a second look. good evening. this is a second book. the name is napa state hospital, the patients and staff think it is more like a prison than a hospital with one major difference, it has less security to rein in the dangers people held there and as a result, the most dangerous are preying on the around them. we had a report back the purported mission of the napa statement the hospital is to protect and heal, but just about everyone there says it is failing, miserably. >> i was assaulted many times. >> it is like you are psychologically raped on a daily basis or at last year, on average, three staff members and seven patients were attacked every day, many by

predatory criminals. >> he was sexually assaulted by a predator >> reporter: we were told about their 30 -year-old son -- that he is in prison. they call it a hospital, but it is not. it is a prison or jail >> reporter: he landed in napa after making terrorist threats against someone. he has been diagnosed schizophrenic, but his parents say he is not getting the treatment he needs. >> the institution fails to maintain his safety. how is he being prepared for a life in the general population? >> reporter: they come to the hospital every week to see their son. our request for access has been denied. to talk to a patient, we have been called their son. >> hello, it is mom. >> they talk to him every day and on this day they let me

talk with him. >> there are random acts of violence. i have been hit and assaulted a couple of times. >> reporter: the worst was when he was sexually assaulted by the man who killed the psychiatric technician. >> i learned my lesson the hard way, not to let your guard down and to not. >> too trusting of the people around you >> reporter: the dangers have excluded because of the dramatic shift in the patient population. in 1989 only 20% of the patients have been committing crimes. now, it is 88% and 16% are accused killers. it is still run like a hospital with no correction officers. >> inside, there is a prison mentality in there that we are going to have to get under control or that leads to the secure part of the hospital,

but workers and patients say that secure means that it keeps the patients from escaping into the community. >> one day it will be my torn or i will be sexually assaulted. >> reporter: this is his second state mental facility and his worst. >> i have been here since 2003. my old hospital was more structured and secure. >> some of these individuals connected, they find the state hospital setting is where they can be a lot stronger and prey on weaker people than if they were imprisoned. >> reporter: state mental health officials announced a special unit staffed with police officers. >> we are looking at the issue of hospital police officers and increasing the resources where we can and figuring out how we can better accommodate the needs of staff wanting to have them on the unit >> reporter: must needed help

cannot come soon enough. of the key to a homicide lester at napa state hospital. >> as simple as a cigarette? patients and employees say a band nearly three years ago on tobacco might have set the stage for a confrontation that caused a staff member her life. we explain >> reporter: the napa state hospital from high above it peaceful and pretty. on the ground-- >> you can feel good tension when you walk on >> reporter: current and former state employees they a sense of fear is alive. >> yes, they found a few months ago six or seven knives. all of a sudden we have bugs running the place here >> reporter: application we spoke with by phone agrees. >> the type of people who have been sent to napa are more and more violent, more and more

dangerous >> reporter: october, 2010, a hospital employee is found dead and her killer is a patient, a man who has a criminal history of armed robbery, sexual assault and murder. they believe they know the motive. it is a unanimous consensus-- >> tobacco banned from the campus, a single cigarette can sell for about $7, $150 for a pack. you take their tobacco away and they go nuts >> reporter: hospital employees- - >> there always has been tobacco trade here for the last 20 something years that i have been here. it has gotten to be more

expensive because it is harder to get in >> reporter: they became a tobacco free cap is and since then, patient on staff assaults have nearly quadrupled. 75 reported assault, a year later, 287. the department of mental health is a rise in defaults is not tied to tobacco and in 2009, it change the way data was collected and reported in the state hospitals, including the way a question was defined. this led to an increase in the number of records. security measures have increased on the napa campus. >> we get personal arms to every employee and have -- shuttle service >> reporter: he do with the new security measures-- >> they are much more calculating here. >> some hospital employees still fear that predatory patients who they say them on campus no still to come, more on the killing of donna and the

danger staff members say they face every day. a bit later, looking back to and other violent time at napa state hospital, a quarter of a century ago.

we're taking a second look back tonight at the long history of violent attacks over the past 26 years by patients at napa state hospital. including multiple homicides during that time two of them against staff members. for the past quarter century, the federal government has from time to time investigated charges that patients rights were being violated because of the conditions there. the justice department began an investigation in 1985 that led to a federal lawsuit in 1990. a judge's consent decree that year put napa state hospital under federal supervision. until the judge suspended that decree in 1955. nine years later the justice department again investigated napa state hospital for

violations of patient's rights. again in 2006 the state agreed to a concept decree putting napa state under federal supervision. that decree remains in effect until today. in a special report earlier this year, ktvu's jim vargas spoke to napa state hospitals employees about the dangers they feel every day. >> reporter: employees at napa state hospital say they have the most dangerous job in california. >> this hospital at this moment is out of control. >> reporter: more than 90% of the nearly 1,200 people here are under criminal forensic treatment which means they can't stand trial. and the lack of police inside the fends were both violent and

nonviolent patients are housed. >> he came across the table with both fists flying. >> reporter: dr. richard frisni received injuries after a patient attacked him. >> what would have stopped him from attacking me? more police presence. >> reporter: this is the sally port to the dorms for the more than 1,000 criminally committed where violent patients sleep alongside the violent often assaulted residents. former president wade jr. says he spent much of his life here. he is one of the people who complained about long police response time. >> the police are out there to my right and the sally part is all the way over here to my left. the hospital police take at least three to four minutes to get into the sally port. that needs to change like yesterday. >> reporter: there's a lot of debate over whether any changes the department of health have

made in the past month have done any good or are even real. >> we have redirected hospital police officers from current positions such as the visiting center, the mail services and put them in the secure treatment area. >> no the police are not on the unit. the police are outside the fence. they're supposed to keep the violently criminal insane from escaping to napa city and napa county. >> reporter: some of those committed here are faking mental illness to avoid prison sentences. but every patient here costs the state $100,000 a year. >> they maybe faking psychosis, they may say that they are hearing voices. and you see them interacting well with other patients. >> the control that we would like to have we don't have.

>> reporter: vhh says many patients can legally refuse medication unless the judge has ordered it as a condition of their commitment. many judges do not. assemblyman allen represents the bay area. he says separating the nonviolent from violent would be a big and inexpensive step to improving security. >> they've had 100 compensation claims and over a thousand assaults. so we believe there might be dramatic savings by saving some money to make it a much safer environment. >> reporter: staff has been saying those kind of things to us for months. but the assaults continue. and workers here continue to look over their shoulders. when we look back on a second look, going back a quarter century to examine another time of violent attacks at napa state hospital. and a bit later, just how

widespread is mental illness in the united states.

in recent month, napa state hospital has been under intense scrutiny. in december another patient attacked and severely injured a respiratory therapist. and in january, a patient was charged with attempted rape and assault of a worker. in an eight month period from 1984 to 1985 patients there killed three people including 46-year-old psychiatric technician alfredo gonzalez. ktvu's claude man first brought us this report in september 1984. >> reporter: the family, friends and coworkers of alfredo gonzalez organized today's vigil to remember his

life and to bring attention to attacks to psychiatric technicians. they say there's far too less staff members, inadequate revision. >> many of them have committed crimes before they've come here and are only not in prison due to the fact that they are ill. so that they are the type of people that would normally be in prison. a lot of them are people who would be inprisoned where there would be a much secure system. instead they are here where we have very little security. mental health is not a popular subject with the community. it's not like a whole in the road that people can see when it's not fixed. >> reporter: the hospital was ordered to do something about reducing the number of patient attacks on staff. but a review this summer showed that there had been no improvement. >> eight months later authorities investigated another homicide at napa state hospital. the victim a 27-year-old female

patient. here is ktvu's burn hawkins from may 1985. >> the victim lived in s4, a general ward for two years. she's been identified as maryland conner, 27 from redding. napa hospital houses 3,000 patients. 300 are given a freedom card. the authority to roam throughout the hospital. >> he had a pass since about 1981. >> reporter: the couple had developed a relationship over the last few week, met saturday in the canteen. they walked from the perimeter, about three blocks into the woods. officials say the cases are not related. but county officials say it's too dangerous to issue cards to some. the district attorney says two of the three murders at the hospital involved patients with cards. >> i've instituted a policy of demanding actual hearings when

they are issued privilege cards which gives them free roam of the grounds and they can walk away whenever they want to. >> in this case his problem developed in the late 70s. do we keep someone locked up for 30 years? >> reporter: patients usually stay here for about two years. there hasn't been a murder here for 14 years. now three in eight months. >> i don't know that there has to be a reason other than they just happened within the last eight months. >> i have the same information now as they had out at the state hospital prior. i do not believe this person should have been allowed to walk on the ground unattended. the month after vern filed that report. lawmakers held a hearing looking for answers to a string of homicides there. they also took a tour and ktvu's camera was allowed to go with them in june 1985. our cameras have not been allowed back inside the

hospital since this report by ktvu's claude man. >> reporter: today at napa, psychiatric technician showed how difficult it is for even several staffers to subdue a really violent patient. and how much tougher it is for just one or two. then they heard story after story about patient assaults on staffer often leading to serious injury >> she came at me scratching me, to the best , punching me and she grabbed my hair. >> he went into the comode area and he struck me in the small of the back. he injured a disk and two

vertebrae in the lower back. >> reporter: over the next few weeks, they ordered for changes. but the hospital is still understaffed. there are no alarm systems and a few of the workers have being given whistles. one of the psychiatric staff was killed by -- violent wards at the hospital. where patients sometimes outnumber hospital staff by more than 10-1. yesterday a sacramento judge gave the state until august 9th to meet safety standards. hospital administrator fred valenzuela says the changes take time. >> in terms of the facility, we have a major reconstruction project, we'll spend over the

next 4.5 years at $32 million here. assemblyman floyd says there's no excuse for some of the delays. >> if i were working under these conditions and i had gone out and i had seen in any for an alarm system and they start to hand me a dam whistle, i would be on the bricks for a picket sign or looking for another job some where. i would not put up with this. >> reporter: no one denies that the conditions have been bad through today. >> when we come back, on a second look, the percentage of people we show mental illness at some point in their lives. the number may surprise you.

how common is mental illness. the answer might surprise you. a study in 2005 put the figure at one person in every two. but it also found few seek help in a timely manner. john sasaki brought us this report six years ago. >> the russell street resident houses 235 people here in berkeley. some of them are chronically homeless. >> when you're mentally ill, you do not know you are mentally ill. i couldn't function myself. i couldn't handle my money.

i couldn't do anything. i would just find myself going in circles all day long. >> reporter: the study that shows that half of all americans suffer of mental illness comes to no surprise to smith. >> before i came homeless and mentally ill. i thought it was those people. until i became that person. i became one of those people. >> in my opinion everybody is -- and you have to get that under control. if it's out of control that's a mental illness. so it seems to be a case of the human condition that there's a struggle over controlling your own mind. >> reporter: david little says he suffered from schizophrenia and started to feel its affects when he was in college. >> i could absolutely not study the material. i had never had any problem. i would just see the wall where i could not pass a course at

mit in physics. i could not pass it anymore. >> reporter: the survey shows that of all the lifetime cases, half of them manifest themselves by the age of 14, suddenly 5% by the age of 24. after the initial onset of symptoms, the median amount of time that people delay seeking help, 10 years. >> the kids don't get help when they need it. they might go for a few years with poor school functioning and poor relations which later has impacts on self-esteem and how that person really functions and grows into adulthood. i think for adults, the studies have shown that mental illness is really the cause of an incredible amount of lost work and lost productivity. >> and that's it for this week's second look. we will continue to follow developments at napa state hospital on our newscast. i'm julie haener, thank you for watching.