About Us
A Brief History: As Remembered by Dennis Felty
In the early part of the 20th Century, the American Eugenics Movement argued that all people who were mentally ill, mentally retarded or physically disabled were polluting the gene pool of the country. Such individuals were seen as a threat to society and the probable cause of most of the criminal activity and social problems of the country. In many states, support for the Eugenics movement resulted in legislation requiring mandatory sterilization, incarceration and in many cases the castration of persons with disabilities. In each state, hundreds of thousands of mentally ill and mentally retarded persons were placed in institutions, the largest of which would house as many as 20,000 people. In the 1940s new genetic research demonstrated unequivocally that the founding precepts of the Eugenics Movement were totally invalid. However by that time hundreds of thousands of mentally ill and mentally retarded persons had been admitted to state institutions.
In Pennsylvania there were about 40 State Hospitals and State Mental Retardation Centers. It was common for families who had a child who was disabled to be told by physicians and other professionals "It is best that you put him away and forget about him." It was also common for children and adolescents who might just be difficult to handle or even young girls who were pregnant to be institutionalized. Within the state institutional system there was no basis for rehabilitation or treatment. No one ever got better because the intent was the protection of society and not the well being of the individual experiencing the disability.
In the 1960'S
In the late 1960s, nationally, our state institutions housed almost 156,000 people with mental retardation and 550,000 people with mental illness. It was common for over one hundred persons to share a single bedroom. Often people would be nude and would lay prostrate on the floors. This offered some coolness since the institutions did not have adequate ventilation. Often the facilities were filthy, with excrement and urine on the floors and walls and the odor was horrific. I particularly remember the noise at Pennhurst. The moaning, screaming and crying that at times was deafening. Within State institutions people might be placed in nude seclusion for days on end. There was of course, no due process and a person could be admitted administratively with no legal recourse. The concepts of Social Role Valorization (SRV) document the multitude of ways vulnerable people were wounded and dehumanized during this period.
As in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the more one resisted control, the more severe the intervention became. Electro shock treatment was frequently be used as punishment and use of straight jackets and mechanical restraints were common. The environments were brutal, however, at this time there were almost no other alternatives for people who were seriously mentally ill or mentally retarded. There were only a few organization such as Easter Seals which operated exclusively on charitable contributions.
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