Patients at Whiting Forensic Hospital in Middletown have a long list of complaints about their living quarters: unhygienic conditions and mice, the closure of the woodworking shop and vegetable garden, frustrations about staff behavior and a lack of privacy. State leaders are working to address some of those shortcomings. But it’s been a deliberate process. But efforts to replace the old facility — a cramped, aging building from the 1970s that was planned by an architect who designed prisons — appear to have hit a roadblock. An architectural firm hired by the state to study the best option for a new hospital has recommended a design that would cost the state $700 million.

https://theday.com/news/809552/replacing-whiting-forensic-hospital-could-cost-700m/#