The hospital was called the North Branch and the farm located on Riverside Drive was called the South Branch. When a large fire broke out at the hospital, all of the rooms were needed to house prisoners, so all of the hospital patients were sent to the South Branch farm. Since that time, the hospital has been located on the grounds of the Riverside Correctional Facility. Until 1972, the hospital was used for the treatment of the mentally ill as well as the criminally insane. Now, there are no civilians at the hospital.
Riverside is still in operation as a correctional facility.
The acutely, mentally ill prisoners are treated in the Mental Health Hospital in Ypsilanti, but those inmates that are chronically ill are still housed at Riverside. The institution , in it's beginning was under the direct supervision of Dr. O. R. Long, his assistant, Dr. W.F. Maxwell and a board of trustees. 1906 Board of Trustees consisted of Hon. J. W. Belkna p of Greenville, F. A. Washburn of Belding, and E. M. Hopkins of Detroit. A. H. Piper of Detroit, John Heffron of Detroit, George W. Stevenson of St. Johns, Hampton Rich of Ionia, Moreau S. Crosby of Grand Rapids, Jerome Croul of Detroit, D. O. Watson of Coopersville, Milo D. Campbell of Coldwater, Orlando M. Barnes of Lansing, Francis F. Palms of Detroit, Edward Duffy of Ann Arbor, C. C. Vaughn of St. Johns, W. H. Mattison of Ionia and J. H. Lancashire of Alma.