Doctors Behavioral Health Center under state probe

The California Department of Public Health confirmed this week it has an open investigation into Doctors Behavioral Health Center in Modesto.

Spokesman Ralph Montano would not say what the probe is about or when it was launched. However, there was no open investigation when the Bee contacted the department in late March, two weeks after a 19-year-old man escaped from the facility and later was fatally shot by an off-duty CHP officer.

On March 19, Ricky Miranda escaped from DBHC six hours after he was admitted. The California State University, Stanislaus, student subsequently was shot and killed after attempting to break into homes about a quarter-mile away.

A sheriff’s deputy took Miranda to the center in an involuntary psychiatric hold because he had threatened to kill himself earlier that day.

An internal investigation into Miranda’s escape is ongoing at DBHC. Representatives from the northeast Modesto facility would not discuss details and repeatedly have refused requests for information regarding their intake and housing policies.

Pete Duenas, spokesman for the Stanislaus County Behavioral Health Services Department, also has declined to comment about whether the county is involved in the DBHC investigation or has launched its own. The county contracts with Doctors Medical Center to provide mental health care at the facility.

No details have been released about how Miranda was processed.

However, Modesto police Sgt. Rick Armendariz said that, in general, when law enforcement takes a person to DBHC on a psychiatric hold, the patient and officer go to the facility’s intake area. The officer is interviewed by intake personnel, while the patient typically is in a separate room monitored by a DBHC-contracted security guard.

How Miranda escaped, and if it was accomplished in a violent manner, is not yet publicly known.

But the center’s policy regarding security for the housing of potentially violent patients sheds some light on its practices.

The county pays DBHC $3.7 million annually to reserve 25 beds for its patients, including those on a psychiatric hold but also felony inmates who can be transferred there from the jail for a variety of reasons.

An inmate may be taken to DBHC to restore competency to stand trial, under a court order for evaluation or for 72-hour treatment.

While guarding inmates at any other medical facility, deputies have access to all their equipment and their weapons, and “hard restraints” are used to confine inmates to their beds.

But at DBHC, sheriff’s employees transferring inmates from the jail not only are required to remove all their equipment, but also made to wear street clothes instead of a uniform.

In cases like Miranda’s — in which patients are brought by law enforcement to the facility without having been processed through jail — uniformed officers retain control of their weapons.

The Sheriff Department’s policy states that guards transferring jail inmates “will be required only to observe and witness the inmate’s actions.”

The policy changed after Doctors purchased the facility from the county in 2007, Sheriff Adam Christianson said. He said the change was made at the behest of the facility’s manager.

“I am concerned about the safety of my officers because they should be appropriately uniformed and appropriately armed,” he said. “We have simply accommodated (DBHC’s) request in the interest of the partnership.”

The policy also dictates that the deputy shall act only in self defense and in the event an inmate attempts to escape, “the guard is not to give chase, but instead call dispatch for assistance and observe/report.”

Representatives from DBHC did not respond to inquiries about the policy or say whether their own security guards are equipped to use force to prevent an escape.

The state’s investigation of DBHC could take months to complete, Montano said, adding that the details will be released then.

Bee staff writer Erin Tracy can be reached at 578-2366.

This story was originally published April 9, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Doctors Behavioral Health Center under state probe."