The Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities has opened a 30-bed unit at West Central Georgia Regional Hospital in Columbus to reduce the number of individuals waiting in jail for court-ordered competency restoration services.
The unit, dubbed “Operation New Hope,” will support individuals transitioning from forensic units back into the community and aims to ease pressure on state psychiatric hospitals, according to a Feb. 25 news release from the agency. The Georgia General Assembly allocated $1.6 million to support the facility.
About 800 individuals have been waiting in jail to receive hospital-based, court-ordered restoration services, as of February 2025. Georgia has about 670 forensic beds, which provide mental healthcare to individuals deemed incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity.
The department has converted underutilized hospital buildings into additional forensic capacity and has brought nearly 100 beds online over the past two years. The expansion includes ONH sites in Savannah, Ga., with 30 beds and Milledgeville, Ga., with 17 beds. In 2025, ONH sites served 43 individuals and discharged five to community programs across the two campuses.
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