Ionia State Hospital
| Ionia State Hospital | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Established | 1883 |
| Opened | 1885 |
| Current Status | Demolished |
| Building Style | Cottage Plan |
| Location | Ionia, MI |
| Alternate Names |
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History
The building of the Ionia State Hospital was authorized in 1883 and was opened under the name of the Michigan Asylum for Insane Criminals in 1885. It was found that this name was objectionable as not all of the patients in the hospital were criminals, so the name was changed by legislative action to Ionia State Hospital. The patients committed to this hospital were insane felons, criminal sexual psychopaths, insane convicts from other prisons, patients transferred from other state institutions that had developed dangerous or homicidal tendencies and persons charged with a crime but acquitted on the grounds of insanity. Initially the hospital patients were housed at the site of the Michigan Reformatory. The hospital was called the North Branch and the farm located on Riverside Drive was called the South Branch. When a large fire broke out at the hospital, all of the rooms were needed to house prisoners, so all of the hospital patients were sent to the South Branch farm. Since that time, the hospital has been located on the grounds of the Riverside Correctional Facility. Until 1972, the hospital was used for the treatment of the mentally ill as well as the criminally insane. Now, there are no civilians at the hospital. Riverside is still in operation as a correctional facility. The acutely, mentally ill prisoners are treated in the Mental Health Hospital in Ypsilanti, but those inmates that are chronically ill are still housed at Riverside.
