Difference between revisions of "Willowbrook State School"

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{{infobox institution
 
{{infobox institution
 
| name = Willowbrook State School
 
| name = Willowbrook State School
| image =
+
| image =1980 20b.jpg
 
| image_size =  
 
| image_size =  
 
| alt =  
 
| alt =  
Line 8: Line 8:
 
| construction_began = 1938
 
| construction_began = 1938
 
| construction_ended =
 
| construction_ended =
| opened =
+
| opened = 1947
| closed =
+
| closed = 1987
 
| demolished =
 
| demolished =
 
| current_status = [[Closed Institution|Closed]]
 
| current_status = [[Closed Institution|Closed]]
 
| building_style = [[Cottage Planned Institutions|Cottage Plan]]
 
| building_style = [[Cottage Planned Institutions|Cottage Plan]]
 
| architect(s) =
 
| architect(s) =
| location =
+
| location = Staten Island, NYC, NY
 
| architecture_style =
 
| architecture_style =
| peak_patient_population =  
+
| peak_patient_population = 5,000 in 1973
 
| alternate_names =<br>
 
| alternate_names =<br>
 
*Halloran General Hospital
 
*Halloran General Hospital
 
*Staten Island Developmental Center  
 
*Staten Island Developmental Center  
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
==History==
 +
In 1938, plans were formulated to build a facility for mentally retarded children on a 375 acres (1.5 km²) site in the Willowbrook section of the Staten Island. Construction was completed in 1942, but instead of opening for its original purpose, it was converted into a United States Army hospital and named Halloran General Hospital, after the late Colonel Paul Stacey Halloran. After the war, proposals were introduced to turn the site over to the Veterans Administration, but in October, 1947 the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene opened its facility there as originally planned, and the institution was named Willowbrook State School.
 +
 +
Throughout the first decade of its operation, outbreaks of hepatitis were common at the school. This led to a highly controversial medical study being conducted there between 1963 and 1966, in which healthy children were intentionally injected with the virus that causes the disease. These studies were designed to gain an understanding of the natural history of infectious hepatitis and subsequently to test the effects of gamma globulin in preventing or combating the disease.
 +
 +
The subjects, all children, were deliberately infected with the hepatitis virus; early subjects were fed extracts of stools from infected individuals and later subjects received injections of more purified virus preparations. Investigators defended the deliberate injection of these children by pointing out that the vast majority of them acquired the infection anyway while at Willowbrook, and perhaps it would be better for them to be infected under carefully controlled research conditions.
 +
 +
During the course of these studies, Willowbrook closed its doors to new patients, claiming overcrowded conditions. However, the hepatitis program, because it occupied its own space at the institution, was able to continue to admit new patients. Thus, in some cases, parents found that they were unable to admit their child to Willowbrook unless they agreed to his or her participation in the studies. This case caused a public outcry forcing the study to be discontinued because of the perception that parents and their children were given little choice about whether or not to participate in research.
 +
 +
During the several decades that Willowbrook was opened, there were continuous allegations of abuse reported on by the local paper, The Staten Island Advance. For many years, these allegations were dismissed and Willowbrook continued to uphold its well-respected reputation in the community. However by early 1972, Geraldo Rivera, then a reporter for television station WABC in New York, conducted a series of investigations at Willowbrook (on the heels of a previous series of articles in the Staten Island Advance and Staten Island Register newspapers), uncovering a host of deplorable conditions, including overcrowding, inadequate sanitary facilities, and physical abuse of residents by members of the school's staff. This resulted in a class-action lawsuit being filed against the State of New York in federal court on March 17, 1972. A settlement in the case was reached on May 5, 1975, mandating reforms at the site, but several years would elapse before all of the violations were corrected. The publicity generated by the case was a major contributing factor to the passage of a federal law, called the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980.
 +
 +
In 1983, the State of New York announced plans to close Willowbrook, which had been renamed the Staten Island Developmental Center in 1974. By the end of March 1986, the number of residents housed there had dwindled to 250 (down from 5,000 at the height of the scandal exposed by Rivera), and the last children left the grounds on September 17, 1987. After the developmental center closed, the site became the focus of intense local debate about what should be done with the property. In 1989 a portion of the land was acquired by the City of New York, with the intent of using it to establish a new campus for the College of Staten Island. The new campus opened at Willowbrook in 1993 (at the same time, one of CSI's two other existing campuses, located in the island's Sunnyside neighborhood, was closed and that site became the home of a new high school). At 204 acres, this campus is the largest maintained by the City University of New York.
 +
 +
The remaining 171 acres of the state school's original property, at the south end, is still under the administration of the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene, which maintains a facility there called the Institute For Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities. At the Institution research is conducted on Down Syndrome, Autism, Alzheimer’s Disease and many rare diseases.
 +
  
 
*From 1956 to 1971 residents at Willowbrook were infected with live hepatitis to develop a vaccine. Some parents gave consent only because it would allow their child acceptance into the overcrowded facility.
 
*From 1956 to 1971 residents at Willowbrook were infected with live hepatitis to develop a vaccine. Some parents gave consent only because it would allow their child acceptance into the overcrowded facility.
 
*In 1972 Geraldo Rivera hosted an expose on the school and the living conditions there titled Willowbrook: The Last Disgrace. To view a portion of the expose [http://www.mnddc.org/parallels/five/5f/1.html Click the link at the bottom of this web page.]
 
*In 1972 Geraldo Rivera hosted an expose on the school and the living conditions there titled Willowbrook: The Last Disgrace. To view a portion of the expose [http://www.mnddc.org/parallels/five/5f/1.html Click the link at the bottom of this web page.]
 
*It has been speculated that this school was was one of the schools shown in the expose book Christmas in Purgatory by Burton Blatt and Fred Kaplan. Burton Blatt never publicly announced what the other four schools in the book were. He said that he would rather the pictures in the book be looked as current conditions in every state school instead of a select few in the North East.
 
*It has been speculated that this school was was one of the schools shown in the expose book Christmas in Purgatory by Burton Blatt and Fred Kaplan. Burton Blatt never publicly announced what the other four schools in the book were. He said that he would rather the pictures in the book be looked as current conditions in every state school instead of a select few in the North East.
*[http://www.mncdd.org/extra/wbrook/willowbrook.html Click here to view a photographic essay on the school.]  
+
*[http://www.mncdd.org/extra/wbrook/willowbrook.html Click here to view a photographic essay on the school.]
 +
 
 +
==Images==
 +
<gallery>
 +
File:willowbrook.png
 +
File:willowbrook1.png
 +
File:NYwillowbrook1951.jpg
 +
</gallery>
  
Here is more of the video Geraldo Rivera did on the hospital on Youtube:
+
==Video==
 +
*Geraldo Rivera did a twenty-seven minute expose on the hospital entitled "Willowbrook: the Last Great Disgrace."  Geraldo has hosted the video on his web page.  You can find it here: [http://geraldo.com/page/willowbrook http://geraldo.com/page/willowbrook]
  
<youtube v="k_sYn8DnlH4" />
+
*In 1997, the documentary entitled: Unforgotten: 25 Years After Willowbrook.  It recounts what happened inside the state school, the impact of Rivera's expose, and life afterword.  Along with that, the documentary follows four people and their families both before, during, and after the closure of the institution.  (In March, 2009, a fire in a residence in upstate Wells, New York, killed four members of the "Willowbrook Class" that was featured in this film.)
 +
<videoflash>FcjRIZFQcUY</videoflash>
  
 
[[Category:Closed Institution]]
 
[[Category:Closed Institution]]
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[[Category:New York]]
 
[[Category:New York]]
 
[[Category:Articles With Videos]]
 
[[Category:Articles With Videos]]
 +
[[Category:Past Featured Article Of The Week]]

Revision as of 02:50, 21 March 2016

Willowbrook State School
Construction Began 1938
Opened 1947
Closed 1987
Current Status Closed
Building Style Cottage Plan
Location Staten Island, NYC, NY
Peak Patient Population 5,000 in 1973
Alternate Names
  • Halloran General Hospital
  • Staten Island Developmental Center



History

In 1938, plans were formulated to build a facility for mentally retarded children on a 375 acres (1.5 km²) site in the Willowbrook section of the Staten Island. Construction was completed in 1942, but instead of opening for its original purpose, it was converted into a United States Army hospital and named Halloran General Hospital, after the late Colonel Paul Stacey Halloran. After the war, proposals were introduced to turn the site over to the Veterans Administration, but in October, 1947 the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene opened its facility there as originally planned, and the institution was named Willowbrook State School.

Throughout the first decade of its operation, outbreaks of hepatitis were common at the school. This led to a highly controversial medical study being conducted there between 1963 and 1966, in which healthy children were intentionally injected with the virus that causes the disease. These studies were designed to gain an understanding of the natural history of infectious hepatitis and subsequently to test the effects of gamma globulin in preventing or combating the disease.

The subjects, all children, were deliberately infected with the hepatitis virus; early subjects were fed extracts of stools from infected individuals and later subjects received injections of more purified virus preparations. Investigators defended the deliberate injection of these children by pointing out that the vast majority of them acquired the infection anyway while at Willowbrook, and perhaps it would be better for them to be infected under carefully controlled research conditions.

During the course of these studies, Willowbrook closed its doors to new patients, claiming overcrowded conditions. However, the hepatitis program, because it occupied its own space at the institution, was able to continue to admit new patients. Thus, in some cases, parents found that they were unable to admit their child to Willowbrook unless they agreed to his or her participation in the studies. This case caused a public outcry forcing the study to be discontinued because of the perception that parents and their children were given little choice about whether or not to participate in research.

During the several decades that Willowbrook was opened, there were continuous allegations of abuse reported on by the local paper, The Staten Island Advance. For many years, these allegations were dismissed and Willowbrook continued to uphold its well-respected reputation in the community. However by early 1972, Geraldo Rivera, then a reporter for television station WABC in New York, conducted a series of investigations at Willowbrook (on the heels of a previous series of articles in the Staten Island Advance and Staten Island Register newspapers), uncovering a host of deplorable conditions, including overcrowding, inadequate sanitary facilities, and physical abuse of residents by members of the school's staff. This resulted in a class-action lawsuit being filed against the State of New York in federal court on March 17, 1972. A settlement in the case was reached on May 5, 1975, mandating reforms at the site, but several years would elapse before all of the violations were corrected. The publicity generated by the case was a major contributing factor to the passage of a federal law, called the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980.

In 1983, the State of New York announced plans to close Willowbrook, which had been renamed the Staten Island Developmental Center in 1974. By the end of March 1986, the number of residents housed there had dwindled to 250 (down from 5,000 at the height of the scandal exposed by Rivera), and the last children left the grounds on September 17, 1987. After the developmental center closed, the site became the focus of intense local debate about what should be done with the property. In 1989 a portion of the land was acquired by the City of New York, with the intent of using it to establish a new campus for the College of Staten Island. The new campus opened at Willowbrook in 1993 (at the same time, one of CSI's two other existing campuses, located in the island's Sunnyside neighborhood, was closed and that site became the home of a new high school). At 204 acres, this campus is the largest maintained by the City University of New York.

The remaining 171 acres of the state school's original property, at the south end, is still under the administration of the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene, which maintains a facility there called the Institute For Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities. At the Institution research is conducted on Down Syndrome, Autism, Alzheimer’s Disease and many rare diseases.


  • From 1956 to 1971 residents at Willowbrook were infected with live hepatitis to develop a vaccine. Some parents gave consent only because it would allow their child acceptance into the overcrowded facility.
  • In 1972 Geraldo Rivera hosted an expose on the school and the living conditions there titled Willowbrook: The Last Disgrace. To view a portion of the expose Click the link at the bottom of this web page.
  • It has been speculated that this school was was one of the schools shown in the expose book Christmas in Purgatory by Burton Blatt and Fred Kaplan. Burton Blatt never publicly announced what the other four schools in the book were. He said that he would rather the pictures in the book be looked as current conditions in every state school instead of a select few in the North East.
  • Click here to view a photographic essay on the school.

Images

Video

  • Geraldo Rivera did a twenty-seven minute expose on the hospital entitled "Willowbrook: the Last Great Disgrace." Geraldo has hosted the video on his web page. You can find it here: http://geraldo.com/page/willowbrook
  • In 1997, the documentary entitled: Unforgotten: 25 Years After Willowbrook. It recounts what happened inside the state school, the impact of Rivera's expose, and life afterword. Along with that, the documentary follows four people and their families both before, during, and after the closure of the institution. (In March, 2009, a fire in a residence in upstate Wells, New York, killed four members of the "Willowbrook Class" that was featured in this film.)

<videoflash>FcjRIZFQcUY</videoflash>