LITTLE ROCK—A $30.2 million, 130-bed building was dedicated as the new Arkansas State Hospital Friday, replacing a facility that had faced criticism that it was not adequately addressing the needs of the mentally ill.

John Selig, director of the Arkansas Department of Human Services, hailed the new state hospital as a milestone for the treatment of mentally ill. At a dedication ceremony with Gov. Mike Beebe and other state officials, Selig called the center a vast improvement over the old state hospital, which was built in 1964.

“I found the place to be claustrophobic and a bit chaotic and a bit depressing, the kinds of things you don’t want when you’re trying to treat mental illness,” Selig said at Friday’s ceremony.

The new 152,000-square foot facility will have 90 adult beds and 40 beds for juveniles.

The old hospital will be remodeled and used by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences for classrooms.

“Just as the 1882 and 1964 facilities were needed to advance the standard of care in their day, we needed this facility to provide the treatment and care that are in needed in our day and our time,” said Charles Smith, the hospital’s administrator.

The new hospital’s opening follows years of criticism and legal battles from advocates who said the state wasn’t providing adequate services for its citizens suffering from mental illness.

In 2006, U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Eisele dismissed a lawsuit that claimed the state wasn’t providing adequate services for the mentally ill. Eisele ruled that the case involving the death of Donald Winter in Benton County’s jail didn’t meet legal standards to prove that the state or county acted with deliberate indifference amounting to cruel and unusual punishment.