Trump Considers Reopening Insane Asylums
President Donald Trump has expressed a willingness to consider the reopening of insane asylums for individuals with severe mental health issues.
In a recent interview in the Oval Office with Daily Caller White House Correspondent Reagan Reese, Trump was asked if he would think about reinstating these facilities. “Yeah, I would,” he said, noting, “They used to have them, and you never saw people like we had, you know, they used to have them.”
He recalled seeing such facilities in New York, adding that many former residents were ultimately released into society due to financial constraints.
Insane asylums, or mental hospitals, became prevalent across the United States from the early 1900s until the 1950s. However, during the 1950s, mental health care began transitioning from inpatient to outpatient treatment, a process referred to as “deinstitutionalization,” according to the Manhattan Institute.
Trump mentioned that he remembers the period when these institutions started closing down in New York, suggesting that it resulted in a “rough situation” as individuals were left without proper support.
Under Governor Andrew Cuomo from 2011 to 2021, efforts were made to decrease the population in state psychiatric centers through a program called the “Transformation Plan.” Research from the Manhattan Institute indicates that while the number of people in state psychiatric centers decreased by 12% from 2014 to 2018, during the same period, the homeless population with mental illnesses in the city rose by about 22% from 2015 to 2017.
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, approximately 67 out of every 100 homeless individuals suffer from a mental health disorder.
Trump’s remarks come amidst his focus on addressing rising crime rates across the country. He has taken measures, like federalizing the police in Washington, D.C., and deploying the National Guard in efforts to control crime, recently declaring the district a “crime free zone.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump commended Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser for collaborating with his administration to reduce crime in D.C., while criticizing other Democratic leaders.
He accused Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson of justifying violent crime rather than working with his administration to eliminate it entirely.
Reports indicate that violent crime in the nation’s capital has declined since Trump took control of the city’s Metropolitan Police Department on August 11.
