At the deceptively-named Napa State Hospital - a sprawling forensic mental facility in California - Dr. Stephen Seager treats the criminally insane, the violently crazed, the real-life Hannibal Lecters of the world. Seager's new book, "Behind the Gates of Gomorrah" recounts his rookie year in Unit C - populated by sociopaths who attack each other and hospital staff with the reliable regularity of any other hospital's rounds.

In praise for the book, medical examiner Dr. Judy Melinek asks, "What happens when the judicial system concentrates a population of criminally insane men with nothing to lose and no compunction against murderous violence behind razor wire and steel doors? Dr. Seager reveals both the courage and the empathy demanded of the staff at this hospital without healing, prison without guards."

How advanced has medical treatment become for the violently insane, if at all? How do the patients relate to each other? What does it take to work at a place such as Napa State Hospital?

Read an excerpt from the book.

Guest:

Dr. Stephen Seager, M.D., Author, "Behind the Gates of Gomorrah: A Year with the Criminally Insane" (Simon & Schuster, September 2014); board-certified psychiatrist, a former assistant professor of psychiatry at UCLA School of Medicine and a multiply published author.