Niuvanniemi hospital is a state mental hospital in the

Niuva Niuva is a district in the western part of the city of Kuopio, Finland. It is well known as the historic Niuvanniemi mental hospital. In terms of land use, Niuva is mainly a field area around the hospital. The district has few settlements and serv ...

district of Kuopio,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. Along with the other state mental hospital,

Vanha Vaasa hospital The Old Student House ( fi, Vanha ylioppilastalo, colloquially called ''Vanha'', "the old one"; sv, Gamla studenthuset) is the former student house of the Student Union of the University of Helsinki, located in central Helsinki, Finland, near ...

, it provides forensic psychiatric services for the entire country. Niuvanniemi is the main location for secure housing and involuntary commitment of criminal patients (i.e. individuals that a court has found

criminally insane The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to an episodic psychiatric disease at the time of the cr ...

), and also receives difficult-to-treat or dangerous mental patients from other hospitals. Niuvanniemi is active in

forensic psychiatry Forensic psychiatry is a subspeciality of psychiatry and is related to criminology. It encompasses the interface between law and psychiatry. According to the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, it is defined as "a subspecialty of psychiat ...

research, as a clinic of

University of Eastern Finland The University of Eastern Finland ( fi, Itä-Suomen yliopisto) is a university in Finland founded in 2010 with campuses in Joensuu and Kuopio. History The Finnish Parliament passed the Universities Act on June 16, 2009, which, among other thing ...

. Niuvanniemi hospital was founded in 1885 and is the oldest psychiatric hospital still in operation in

. Niuvanniemi conducts about half of the court-ordered mental examinations. Niuvanniemi has 260 beds for patients, of which 12 are for minors. In 2010, 51% of patients were patients whose sentence for a serious crime has been waived due to insanity; they are committed for 8 years and 8 months on average. Other difficult-to-treat patients, transferred from other hospitals, are committed at least 3–4 years, on average 5 years and 3 months. Niuvanniemi is not a correctional institution, i.e. the inmates are mental patients, not convicts, thus there are no set time limits for detention. (Within the penal system proper, there ''Psykiatrinen vankisairaala'' with locations in Turku and Vantaa, where the patients are convicts.)

Notable patients

Jean Boldt Johan Carl Emil (Jean) Boldt (19 April 1865 – 16 May 1920) was a Finnish lawyer and journalist, who was known as a theosophist and anarchist. Life Boldt was born in the Eastern Finnish town of Kuopio. He studied law in the University of Hels ...

† * Kaarlo Kramsu † *

Jammu Siltavuori Antti Veikko Ilmari Siltavuori (29 October 1926 – 9 March 2012), better known as Jammu Siltavuori or Jammu-setä ("Uncle Jammu"), was a Finnish murderer and sexual offender. Early life Veikko Siltavuori was born in Vaasa, Finland. Informati ...

† *

Sanna Sillanpää Sanna Riitta Liisa Sillanpää (born 15 April 1968) is a Finnish woman who shot three men to death with a rented 9mm Beretta 92FS semi-automatic pistol on 21 February 1999 in a shooting club in , Helsinki, and wounded another man, who received l ...

References

External links

Official website of Niuvanniemi hospital
(in English) {{Coord, 62, 54, 54, N, 27, 37, 25, E, region:FI-IS_type:landmark_source:kolossus-fiwiki, display=title Kuopio Psychiatric hospitals in Finland