SALEM (AP) - If the Oregon State Hospital closes down, the city of Salem is the ideal location for its replacement, workers from the existing facility told a state panel.

Plans call for replacing the 123-year-old hospital with four new facilities: a 620-bed hospital in the North Willamette Valley, a 360-bed hospital south of Linn County and two 16-bed residential facilities east of the Cascades.

On Monday, workers and union officials told a state committee developing criteria for siting the new buildings that Salem is the logical place to put the largest hospital.

Randy Davis, a mental health technician in the hospital's forensic psychiatric program, said surplus state land in southeast Salem provides a good location and the city has a long history as Oregon's center for prisons and mental hospitals.

“We already have a community that is accepting of large institutions,” he said.

City Manager Bob Wells added that Salem residents would be less likely than people in other cities to complain about a new psychiatric hospital going up in their backyards.

“We are the backyard currently,” Wells said.

Others noted that workers trained to care for the mentally ill already live in the area.

State-hired consultants told the panel of state lawmakers and administrators that Oregon should seize a prime opportunity to revamp its entire mental health system. Besides building new facilities to replace the crumbling state hospital, consultants said the state must expand community-based housing and mental health services.

Plans call for the 2007 Legislature to select sites for two new hospitals in Western Oregon and two smaller facilities east of the Cascades.

Hospital critics warned against spending $324 million for new psychiatric facilities.

“We're kidding ourselves if we think we can do quality care in institutions,” said Beckie Child, a mental health advocate and critic of state hospital care and conditions.

Child said most patients who leave the state hospital look back with regret on their time there. She told the panel to upgrade community-based services aimed at keeping people out of hospital settings.

“We have been forgotten, demeaned, dehumanized and degraded for too long,” she said.

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Information from: Statesman Journal, http://www.statesmanjournal.com