Wednesday
25 Apr 2007
DHS Moves to Former Gov. Hospital for the Insane
By Annie Jacobsen in category Bureaucracy & The Wall, U.S. Homeland Security
The Department of Homeland Security is setting up shop at the former Government Hospital for the Insane. St. Elizabeths was created by an act of Congress in 1855 and became the official government psychiatric hospital, or insane asylum. The hospital provided mental health facilities for the Army, Navy and the District of Columbia. Now St. Elizabeths will function as headquarters for the federal agency tasked with protecting the homeland from the terrorist threat.
Explaining the move to DHS employees on Monday, DHS Deputy Secretary Michael P. Jackson wrote in an email:
Date: April 23, 2007
To: DHS and Component Headquarters Employees in the National Capital Region
From: Michael P. Jackson [DHS Deputy Secretary]
Subject: Status of Move to St. Elizabeths
"I want to share with you the current status of our efforts to unify DHS core headquarters facilities and our operating components at the St. Elizabeths West Campus in Southeast Washington, D.C.
When DHS was created in 2003, it was appropriately built with dispatch. Today, more than 60 buildings housing DHS employees are scattered widely throughout the National Capital Region (NCR). A single campus facility will allow us greatly to improve our operational effectiveness and enhance our ability to act as a nimble and integrated team."
Will agencies within DHS begin sharing information with each other now that they will be on the same campus? Or will the new campus be just another bureaucratic fortress with really high walls?