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In "Hard facts on drugs, mental illness must be faced" (Sept. 30), author Nick Magrino presents an argument for institutionalizing Minneapolis' homeless population. He uses shocking and disturbing language to describe the unhoused that I won't repeat. He doesn't explore Minnesota's or America's history with institutionalization, or provide evidence as to why he believes this is the solution beyond the need to remove homeless people from the streets.
I know nothing about Magrino's background or expertise with homelessness, mental health care or housing. He didn't present any of that in his piece. If he had worked in any of those fields, he would have knowledge of America's horrific background with institutions and why they no longer exist.
Psychiatric wings have been a part of American medicine since the creation of public and private hospitals in the early 19th century. Many institutions were built across the U.S. under the Kirkbride model, funded through state tax dollars. A Kirkbride building still exists in Fergus Falls, Minn.
People ended up in psychiatric hospitals not only for mental illness but for addiction, senility (growing old), or being difficult or hysterical.
State funding declined for these programs and much of the therapeutic programming shut down, focusing instead on research and new medical treatments. This included electroshock, forced sterilization and lobotomies.
Several investigative journalists went inside institutions with hidden cameras, exposing the horrific living conditions for those forced into psychiatric care — people shackled to beds in their own waste, graphic violence from staff, poor living conditions and much more.
