Comments

Ya, would love to have seen the lights on the bannisters, nice to see the rest of this area un - touched by Vandels!!

I love those Windows!!

seems to be clean, and untouched!!

That is so pretty. Great picture

New Pics!!!, Thanks Mr. Motts, I don't know what will be better, The new gallery, or the Story of how you got the new Gallery!!!!! ;-) Ed from Oregon

I know they put the "grip strip" on the stairs for safety but it sure does tarnish the beauty of the marble.

Wow, thanks for the nice gallery. And it makes me ill that corporations want to tear down such beautiful structures. Clearly at least part of this building (the administration) could be re-used, rather than torn down. It would make a lovely bank! Of course, I like the state its in now, but I'd rather it be reused than torn down. I'm just absolutely sick over Danvers and Dixmont. These people make me want to puke.

Wow, nice! I love those old medicine bottles. Found one once while triapsing through the woods looking for remnants of this old school that had once been there..

Very cool shot.

You're right, Pb, it really does...

Oh Lynne, we need you! Why would they have mesh doors like this? I mean, I see some benefit to it but I have to admit it seems archaic.

Well, I guess that's where I'd put my bed...

Very neat shot will all the moss.

Wow, that fireplace is magnificent! And thanks for the translation Bri, I've completely forgotten my Latin : / ...all I remember is the conjugation of "silva" or forest...silva, silvae, silvae, silva, silvum, silvis, silvorum....etc....err something like that. I also remember puella, "girl" or something like that. :P

Wow, those staircases are absolutely gorgeous. When did this place close? It looks immaculate...perhaps due to the booby traps, but nonetheless...

Oooh nice shot!

And yay! New gallery! *does Snoopy dances*

Sorry,,,,this ended up being longer than I expected.

I agree with pretty much everything said, especially that things are not as simple as good or bad.

Most people in institutions don't want to be pitied (but some do, remember we're talking mental illness in many cases).

The majority of care providers do give a damn and are good people, but under certain conditions (e.g. overcrowding, understaffing, undertraining) everyone has a breaking point. This is one way abuse occurs.

Everyone thinks the sort of abuse that went on at places like Pennhurst were overt to the general public, as if anyone in the general public would know about it if it went on today. It took alot of investigative reporting to urge on institutional reform, first in the 1940s, and then again in the 1960s and 1970s (I guess people forgot about it in the 50s).

Institutional abuse still occurs regularly, especially against underage patients and severely impaired patients. For example, I used to work at a private psych hospital with a very good reputation for a decent number of years. From the inside, they seemed to average about 2 incidents of likely sexual abuse and many, many incidents of physical abuse. Yet, most of these aren't known to the public and nothing is done about them internally (I even reported several incidents myself only to see the conditions, and staff members, on the unit stay the same!).

It was true that ALOT of abuses went on at Pennhurst (and was therefore more obvious), but there were ALOT more patients. However, today's abuses are less obvious for various reasons. Instead of widespread neglect as well as other forms of abuse (like at Pennhurst and other places), there is now mostly physical and sexual abuse. Many of these abuses go unfounded because (a) victims are unwilling or unable to come forward, (b) a single victim's or accuser's account is often not enough to result in meaningful action, (c) hospital lawyers make it hard for a staff member to be proven liable, and (d) if all else fails, the lawyers settle civil ca$e$ quickly and include language/term$ that make it unlikely that families will pursue criminal complaints (many families prefer paydays and not criminal justice).

To come full circle, it's NOT as easy as saying these obstacles are a bad thing. There are TONS and TONS of allegations of abuse that are complete BS (I've witnessed these too). Some families scheme for paydays, so in this regard, it is good to make it hard to prove abuse.

So, like someone said, (Lynne I think), it's never as easy as Good vs Bad. Just please keep trying to learn as much as possible about something.

Here are some good places to start:

Unforgotten: Willowbrook 20 years later (This is a DVD with Geraldo's original expose from the 70s, a good watch)

Suffer the Children (This is an expose on Pennhurst specifically, available as linked by Motts on the main Pennhurst page. There is a color one available from the "vault" on NBC10.com)

Books by Grob (these are mostly historical books on institutions and related topics,,,"The Mad Among Us" is particularly good)

radical ed i heard that they are tearing down byberry n putting in row homes for old ass people? is this true. all i wanna know is are they going to tear it down in the next 2 years?

p.s. have u ever got caught by security there