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Thom Linden's avatar

It is definitely the question of our day. It's Christmas and I remember vividly 60 years ago visiting the Agnew institution for mentally ill. Agnew was a sprawling facility located in what is now called Silicon Valley in Calif. The facility was along the southern end of San Francisco bay where Sun Microsystems and Google later located (I imagine getting beneficial tax treatments).

I was a young boy scout and our troop organized a holiday party for one of the wards. We setup and helped decorate a tree, sang some songs, passed out cookies/drinks and shared small gifts while mingling (best we could). I recall the building was well maintained and everyone participated in singing and enjoying their evening. Yes, some were 'slow' but their enjoyment was obvious.

Gov. Reagan signed the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act in 1967 which shutdown Agnew and all other mental illness facilities in CA. The act was clothed in language about the abuse, mistreatment and legal institutionalization of individuals against their will. Almost certainly there was truth in that objective. The slight of hand here was the act relied on being replaced with 'community treatment centers'. Those centers were never funded.

As a direct consequence of this Act, the number of mentally ill in jails doubled the following year. Small crimes resulted in incarceration. The prisoner was given food, a place to sleep and medication. Once stable they were released only to repeat the cycle.

Later, -as mentioned in this report- Reagan repeated this slight of hand nationwide. I remember well as veterans were returning with mental illness they also became trapped in this identical cycle. I have seen well how the country has been responding even today to the homeless. I have seen it in our wealthy Silicon Valley cities and how the homeless are demonized.

And I think back to a Christmas 60 years ago.

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Jo's avatar

I come across so many people that still believe Reagan was the greatest president ever. Blows my mind.

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