BY MICHAEL BIESECKER AND MARK JOHNSON – staff writers
RALEIGH – As North Carolina’s leaders struggle to balance its budget, they are considering proposals to outsource parts of the state’s troubled mental health and probation systems.
Lanier Cansler, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said this week that he is considering privatizing the care of about 80 mental patients at Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh in a unit for patients accused of crimes, including rape and murder. The patients are awaiting trial or have been found not guilty by reason of insanity.
“We’re not saying this is a road we particularly want to go down,” said Cansler, who was previously a lobbyist for private contractors working for the agency he now heads. “But when we’re dealing with budgets and all the issues we’re dealing with, we continue to look at ideas for how we might do something different or better or save money.”
