Rise of Institutions - Out of the Shadows

In 1859 a report to the Legislature on the issue of “idiotic children” and the need for their education led to a resolve funding such “education” at one of the Institutions already in place in New England, as well as a call for Maine to investigate the building of its own institution.

Resolve in favor of the training and teaching indigent idiotic children, 1859 Sidebar: Indigent idiotic children, in favor of. Main body: Chapter 232. Resolves in favor of the training and teaching indigent idiotic children. Resolved, That there be paid out of the treasury of this state a sum not exceeding fifteen hundred dollars, for the purpose of training and teaching such indigent idiotic children of the state of Maine, as may be considered proper subjects for education by the governor and council; provided, a suitable arrangement can be made at any New England institution established for the education and training of such children. Resolved, That the governor and council be directed through themselves or some suitable commission, to make the condition and number of the idiots of our state a matter of investigation, and report to the next legislature the expediency of forming a state institution of our own. [Approved March 11, 1859.] — Resolve in favor of the training and teaching indigent idiotic children, 1859

There was also concern that the “town farm” system was becoming too expensive, too accommodating of “laziness”, and also, ironically, rife with abuse and corruption. “The fact is that a namby-pamby policy in the poor house will invite those who might not be paupers. There is a distinction to be made between those who are paupers through feebleness of mind or of body or through misfortune, and those who are paupers largely because of being born into cussedness as well as into weariness.”

By 1875, after the regulation of poorhouses in most states became the responsibility of the State Board of Charities, laws were passed prohibiting children from residing in poorhouses and removing mentally ill patients and others with special needs.

Lewiston Evening Journal, June 12, 1893 List of Headlines and subheadlines: Alms House Abuses. No Doubt That They Exist in Many Maine Towns. A Chance for a Crusade in Behalf of the Neglected Pauper. The Good Work Going On at the Maine Reform School. — Lewiston Evening Journal, June 12, 1893

By the late 19th and early 20th century, there were rising calls for a separate institution for those who were called the “feeble minded”. Towns were interested in reducing their welfare costs, and welcomed a place to send people who were seen as an undesirable burden in their communities, and policymakers thought that large institutions would create cost savings through efficiency.

1903 Report of Committee on Home for Feeble Minded …persons who are daily knocking at its doors for admission? The institutions at Augusta and Bangor which have already practically reached their maximum capacity should be left to devote its institutional energies to care for the absolutely insane and not be expected to extend aid to the idiot, the imbecile or the feeble-minded. The hospital at Augusta has already quite a large number of that class of patients that could be better cared for and naturally belong to an institution devoted to the feeble-minded, and I have reason to believe that the same experience is noted at Bangor. The progressive and indefatigable investigations which have been prosecuted in lines of rational treatment during the past quarter of a century have demonstrated beyond a doubt the necessity of widely different methods of treatment to be brought into requisition in properly caring for the actually insane and feeble-minded. The domiciling of the two classes is incompatible and one is frequently a menace to the other. — 1903 Report of Committee on Home for Feeble Minded

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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.