Brooklyn Psychiatric Facility Draws Scrutiny of Prosecutors

The conditions at the psychiatric facility at the city-run Kings County Hospital Center are drawing the scrutiny of federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

Lawyers at the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn appear to be weighing whether to bring a civil rights case against the hospital. Last year, lawyers for state's Mental Hygiene Legal Service sued the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation on behalf of psychiatric patients who claimed they lived in squalid conditions at the hospital. Patients sometimes slept on a filthy floor and did without toiletries, the suit claimed, and patients were also forcibly injected with psychotropic medication when it was not needed.

A lawyer from the civil division of the U.S. attorney's office has been present for court hearings and listened in on conference calls relating to the case, according to information on the docket.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, Robert Nardoza, confirmed that the office "is monitoring the lawsuit," but declined to comment further.

The plaintiffs and the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation are in settlement discussions. Since the suit was filed, the hospital, in East Flatbush, has added 16 staff members to the psychiatric facility, including housekeeping staff and therapists, according to a letter from the city to the court.

A lawyer who represents the plaintiffs, Robert Cohen, said the cleanliness of the psychiatric facilities have improved and that patients are receiving linens and toiletries more frequently.

But those improvements have not extended to "the quality of the care, the overcrowding, the long, extended waits that are often in violation of state law," Mr. Cohen, of the firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP, said.

A spokesman for the Health and Hospitals Corporation declined to comment on the suit, but said construction of a larger center for behavioral health would be completed this year.

The hospital's emergency psychiatric department "is one of the busiest in the nation and sometimes experiences overcrowding," a spokesman, James Saunders, said.