The facility is located at the edge of the Coastal Mountain Range in the heart of California just outside the City of Coalinga and in proximity to the Pleasant Valley State Prison.

The inhabitant population consists of those who are deemed by the state's evaluators to suffer from "volitional impairment" and dangerousness (in that they are likely to re-offend not of their own free choice).

[8] The facility has been the subject of controversy as it has been considered by some to be a place of unconstitutionally punitive detention for those fraudulently deemed both dangerous and mentally ill despite the state knowing otherwise.

The UK courts did not permit this extradition, as they were made aware that Mr. G could be subject to post-sentence imprisonment at Coalinga State Hospital.

Therefore, the court ruled that Mr. G's detention at Coalinga would have amounted to a "flagrant" breach of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

[17] Since 2006, 179 patients have been "unconditionally released"; they have been deemed no longer to meet the criteria identifying them as sexually violent predators and can live freely, although registered as sex offenders.

The patients made the claim that staff working at the facility often stare unsympathetically at them while they repeatedly beg staff to provide them with the adequate treatment the facility's administrators are purported to prohibit (i.e., scientifically approved assessments of their assigned volitional impairment disorder, daily sex offender treatment, timely assessments necessary to progress toward release, and documentation of any relevant symptoms of their disorder).

However, choosing not to participate in SOTP and/or other treatment programs does not logically guarantee that the actual and legitimate perceived needs of committed persons would be met either.

Three-quarters of CSH's 850-plus detainees refuse to participate in a core treatment program, undermining a central piece of Coalinga State Hospital's purported mission.

Only 25 to 30 percent of sexually violent predators consent to participate in the active phases of California's sex offender treatment program.

The one-hour program first aired on BBC Two in the United Kingdom on April 19, 2009, and in Australia in December 2012, as the seventh in a series of Theroux specials.