Napa State Hospital

Dr. Stephen Mayberg, who has directed California's Department of Mental Health since 1993, on Thursday announced his plan to retire. 

"He will finish out his term with this administration, which will be through the end of the month," Jennifer Turner, a spokeswoman for the department, wrote in an e-mail. "He came to the resolution that he was not prepared to serve another four years, and felt it best to retire now, in line with the transition versus doing such in the middle of the Brown Administration."

Since the strangling death of a psychiatric technician at Napa State Hospital in October, the Department of Mental Health has been under pressure to improve the safety of the facility, which treats mentally ill patients, most of whom have been committed there by criminal courts. Over the past two years there were 224 instances when injuries inflicted by patient assaults caused staff at the hospital to miss at least one day of work, The Bay Citizen reported. 

Also on Thursday, two state lawmakers, Assemblyman Michael Allen and state Sen. Noreen Evans, toured Napa State Hospital, KGO reported. They have called on Gov. Schwarzenegger and Gov.-elect Jerry Brown to release emergency funds to increase security at the hospital. 

The profile of the patients treated in state mental hospitals has radically changed during Mayberg's tenure as director. Some 92 percent of the patients in the hospitals today were referred there by the criminal justice system, according to the Department of Mental Health. Fifteen years ago, the figure was just 20 percent.