Inside the state-run psychiatric hospital where Lindsay Clancy is living after her mistrial, reports paint a troubling picture of violence, decay, and unrest.
Tewksbury Hospital in Massachusetts has faced so many assaults that its security team was briefly allowed to use batons and handcuffs on patients, according to the Boston Globe. That controversial policy was short-lived, and staff have since been told to call police during emergencies.
In April alone, at least three employees were reportedly attacked on the job. One visitor was arrested after allegedly assaulting a pregnant staff member who tried to intervene when he punched a window and threatened to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 workers. In another incident, a patient reportedly lunged at another with a sharp object.
“The fact of the matter remains, it’s still an unsafe environment,” Jean Calvert-McClure, a local union president, told the Globe.
Police and the hospital’s safety department responded to more than 500 calls for assaults in 2025, according to the report. Workers say the 370-bed facility is flooded with unmedicated, untreated, and sometimes dangerous patients from the criminal justice system.
The facility also struggles with unsanitary conditions. Reports from recent years describe bed bugs, failing roofs, and manganese contamination that made water undrinkable, forcing reliance on bottled water.
Clancy, 36, has been living at Tewksbury since 2023, after she allegedly strangled her three young children in their Duxbury home in January 2023. The case ended in a mistrial last week after a deadlocked jury could not reach a unanimous decision. One male holdout juror reportedly prevented a verdict.
During the trial, a doctor testified that Clancy described spending most of her time in bed or alone at Tewksbury, with limited interaction with staff and patients.
Clancy claims she was in the throes of postpartum psychosis and overmedicated at the time of the killings. She also allegedly attempted suicide afterward, leaving her partially paralyzed.
After her attorneys’ last-ditch appeal was denied, she was returned to the hospital to await further legal proceedings.
What happens next for Clancy and for the troubled facility where she remains?
