PROVO — A handful of state lawmakers toured the Utah State Hospital Wednesday on the heels of a legislative proposal to shift responsibility for the nearly 400-bed mental institution to a private company.

"The main question I have is, should we privatize this place or not?" Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, said at the outset of the one-hour tour, which included the secure forensics unit where criminal defendants found mentally incompetent to proceed to trial or have been found guilty but mentally ill or not guilty by reason of insanity are housed.

Among the 100 patients in the forensics unit are Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, who are accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart. Doctors are working to restore the pair's mental competency to enable them to stand trial for the teenager's 2002 abduction.

Another 349 people are housed in various buildings on the sprawling, 80-acre campus, including 72 patients younger than 18. The facility, operated by the Utah Department of Human Services, provides care that includes psychiatric services, substance-abuse treatment, various forms of therapy and educational programs.

"The patients seen here are the most severely mentally ill in the state," said Chris Metcalf, the hospital's director of nursing. "When they come here, it means they have failed everywhere in the system."

Earlier this year, Rep. Rebecca Lockhart, R-Provo, proposed a bill that would have required the Department of Human Services to issue a request for proposals for operation and management of the hospital. The bill did not pass, but lawmakers did set aside a small amount of money for a study of possible future privatization.

Christensen, co-chairman of the Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, said he has received strong opinions on both sides of the issue but has not yet made up his own mind.

"I'm in the middle," he said. "I just want some information so we can make an appropriate decision."

Human Services Executive Director Lisa-Michele Church has frequently spoken out against privatization, cautioning lawmakers to go slowly on the matter. Lockhart's bill, she said in February, is not the process to use to privatize a major, $45 million state institution.

Wednesday, Church said she can see only two reasons to privatize the hospital: to improve quality or reduce costs. The facility tour, she said, should show that the state is providing the highest quality care for patients.

"When they come here and see the quality, they can't seriously see that there could be an improvement," she said. "They see the quality of our staff, they see the integrity of the treatment and the quality of our buildings. ... I'm always proud to show it off."

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