Out of the Shadows - The Legacy of Pineland Logo

Expansion of the School

Newspaper clipping from theLewiston Evening Journal, April 7, 1937 with the headline: "Act To Permit 240 To Enter Pownal School - Senate Bill Gives Health and Welfare Dep't Control of Admission""

Lewiston Evening Journal, April 7, 1937

While changes were being made to the administrative structures of Maine’s institutions, the Pownal State School was undergoing an expansion as well. An increase in beds and buildings was championed by a new superintendent, Dr. Stephen E. Vosburgh, who was hired in 1919 and served for 18 years. 

Dr. Vosburgh was proud of the modern 110-bed hospital built in 1931 at the Pownal State School that had facilities for all types of issues – eye, ear, throat, X-ray, dentistry, surgery, and “laboratories for research into every channel of feeblemindedness.”

Dr. Vosburgh, according to the book Voices of Pineland by Stephen Murphy (2011), “was a committed eugenicist, promoting wholesale segregation, marriage restrictions, institutional expansion, minimal parole, and ushering in Maine’s sterilization era.” Vosburgh said in an 1832 speech that the hospital was even performing sterilizations “to prevent reproduction among sub-normals” – a term that he said was replacing “feeble minded.” “Feeble minded” had been dropped from name of the institution in 1925.

Superintendents Vosburgh, (1919-1937) and Dr. Nessib S. Kupelian, (1938-1953) believed – as did many others – that the majority of the feeble minded had “inherited” the condition and, without being segregated from the general population, and, in some cases, sterilized, the “problem” would only increase.

Newspaper clipping from the Lewiston Evening Journal, April 13, 1926
Lewiston Evening Journal, April 13, 1926

With a desire to expand the resources of the institution to segregate people with developmental disabilities, Vosburgh garnered $200,000 in 1931.

Newspaper clipping from the Portland Sunday Telegram, November 18, 1931
Portland Sunday Telegram, November 18, 1931 Courtesy New Gloucester Historical Society
Newspaper clipping from the Lewiston Daily Sun, September 12, 1931 with the headline: "Eleven Maine Building Projects Total More Than Million and One-Half Dollars"
Lewiston Daily Sun, September 12, 1931

Dr. Vosburgh claimed that the need for the institution, as shown by the long waitlists of people whose families desperately wanted to place them at Pownal, demanded funding of more dormitories, housing for employees, and other improvements.

Newspaper clipping from the Lewiston Evening Journal, November 10, 1932 with the headline: "Pownal School Improves Service For Weak-Minded"
Lewiston Evening Journal, November 10, 1932

Kupelian, head of the new hospital before he became superintendent, oversaw the sterilizations. 

In 1932, the school had 50 buildings 800 “inmates” who performed labor that made the institution largely self-supporting, he reported. 

Newspaper clipping from the Lewiston Evening Journal, November 15, 1933 with the headline: "From Inside Looking Out at Pownal State School Today - New Methods and Fine Equipment Make for Success"
Lewiston Evening Journal, November 15, 1933

Even in the midst of the Great Depression, the Legislature was convinced of the need for expansion at the School and other institutions, and in 1936 approved $2 million in bonds to, among other things, build new dormitories at Pownal that would house an additional 300 residents.

Newspaper clipping from the Lewiston Daily Sun, January 4, 1936 with the headline: "How Maine Is Spending Two Million Dollars on a Public Building Program - Bond Issue Approved by the People Last September"
Lewiston Daily Sun, January 4, 1936

These “improvements” made costs rise at a time when state governments were trying to keep budgets low. Waiting lists persisted and operating costs went up, with increased patient loads.

Newspaper clipping from the Lewiston Daily Sun, December 30, 1936 with the headline: "Increased Costs Loom Up in the Thirteen State Institutions, Due to Additional Buildings, Equipment, and Increased Number of Inmates"
Lewiston Daily Sun, December 30, 1936
Newspaper clipping from the Lewiston Sun-Journal, January 6, 1937 with the headline: "$2,000,000 Spent on Maine Institutions – Does Not Eliminate Waiting Lists – Operating Costs Up"
Lewiston Sun-Journal, January 6, 1937

Over the next 20 years, there would be repeated calls for more beds at the institution, continued wait lists, and complaints of overcrowding. The answer to the institution’s many problems was always to expand the institution, and in 1937 the Department of Health and Welfare was given control over admissions.

Maine 1937 Public Law Chapter 153
Maine 1937 Public Law Chapter 153
Newspaper clipping from the Lewiston Evening Journal, January 21, 1937 with the headline: "Many Problems At State's Institutions"
Lewiston Evening Journal, January 21, 1937
Newspaper clipping from theLewiston Evening Journal, April 7, 1937 with the headline: "Act To Permit 240 To Enter Pownal School - Senate Bill Gives Health and Welfare Dep't Control of Admission""
Lewiston Evening Journal, April 7, 1937
Return to Timeline

Theme Alert!

Institutional Bias

Institutional Bias

It is easy to assume that institutions are the right place for people with significant needs – in an institution, the assumption is that we can keep them “safe”, provide all the care they need in one place, and people with disabilities can live with “people like them”. These assumptions were worked into the policies and laws until the systems and the biases were intertwined and interchangeable.

Despite the evidence that institutions do not provide better care, a more stimulating environment, or less expensive treatment options than the community, our systems still reflect the historical assumptions that built them. When asked if people would like to live in the community they sign a waiver from their right to an institution.  The “institutional bias” is imbedded within the current waiver system – how most people with developmental disabilities access services – makes getting good and services in the community harder.  For that matter, the “institutional bias” includes an unwritten value statement that people with developmental disability do not have a natural place within the community.  But is that true?  Doesn’t everyone have a place?

More troubling still, many organizations are beginning to look towards building new institutions, using very similar language to that of the early 1900’s. They point towards the failures of the community system as proof that we need large congregate settings for people with developmental disabilities.

What are the assumptions here?

Money

Money

From the beginning of the institutional period, the cost of providing care for people with developmental disabilities was both the reason for building larger and larger congregate settings and an excuse for any evidence of neglect or poor treatment that came to light.

Throughout the history of Pineland you can see the frequent requests for more funding.  When Pineland was closed a new pool of money was flooded into the community.  This followed a series of cuts and the same types of pleas for additional funds that can be seen through the institutional period.

To this day, disagreements over the amount of funding put towards services plague this system. Reimbursement rates and workers’ paychecks, infrastructure and innovative care – the question of “how do we pay for this?” hangs over all the decisions made.

Waiting

Waitlists

Waitlists have occurred since the very beginning of services. Many people who could benefit from services to live more supported and independent lives instead languish on waitlists.

In the past, superintendents of Pineland used the need of more beds as an excuse to call for a larger institution.

Today, waitlists for services are an ever-increasing problem. Children, despite a diagnosis can’t access the inventions that could change their lives and as a result, their needs often become so challenging that they end up in significantly more restrictive and costly placements than they would have needed if they had gotten the right service at the right time. Young people who have been supported through the school system can find themselves waiting years to access adult services.  People in the disability field call this period “the cliff” when youth are without services and supports and many of the skills that they worked so hard to achieve begin to erode and their future feels like it might slip away.  Adults who have services learn that they are stuck in poverty, single, or unable to move as their services may be at risk if they make to much money, get married or move.  Life decisions that most of us view as our right can mean starting the process of securing services all over again, making opportunities to grow and be fulfilled as an adult also fraught with anxiety.

SCROLL DOWN