Lawmakers To Hold Hearing On Former Psychiatric Hospital
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- The Legislative Black Caucus has scheduled a hearing on the former Crownsville State Hospital, which closed in 2004.
Del. Aisha Braveboy, the caucus chair, told The Capital that the group will hold a hearing on Sept. 18 in Annapolis on the former psychiatric hospital for African-Americans. The state first sought to redevelop the hospital when it solicited proposals for the 532 -acre campus in 2008.
"I just want to hear about what the community envisions, bring stakeholders together to talk it through and create a shared vision of how that would work," Braveboy said.
Members of the NAACP, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the American Civil Liberties Union have been invited to attend, Braveboy said.
Braveboy said the caucus wants to learn more about medical experimentation performed on patients and what role the government played in deaths at the hospital.
"A number of people never made it out of Crownsville," she said.
In July, the nonprofit group Community Services Center at Crownsville Inc. announced plans to redevelop the site as a $97 million campus for nonprofit organizations.
Former Anne Arundel County Executive Robert Pascal has expressed interest in partnering with the University of Maryland School of Medicine to build a 43,000-square-foot urgent care center.
The Caucus of African-American Leaders in Anne Arundel County called for an investigation into the Crownsville State Hospital earlier this month.
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