Office of Mental Health

South Beach Psychiatric Center: Facility Security (Follow-Up Report)

South Beach Psychiatric Center, which is located on Staten Island, houses about 300 patients. In audit report 2006-S-36, we examined security practices at the Center and found that improvements were needed. In particular, security personnel at the facility’s front gate were not performing their duties as required. For example, on several instances, we observed taxis exiting the facility without being stopped to verify that the passengers were authorized to leave. We also determined that several patients were able to leave the grounds, even though they did not have permission to do so. Our observations of the grounds also identified other security weaknesses. When we followed up on these matters with Facility officials, we found that they had made progress in implementing our audit recommendations, but additional improvements were still needed.

For a complete copy of Report 2008-F-28 click here.