Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 96 - Pennhurst State Hospital: Pennsylvania's Dirty Secret

Episode Date: July 16, 2018

Billed now as the Pennhurst Haunted Asylum, Pennhurst was never an asylum. It wasn't a home for the mentally ill when it first opened its doors in 1908. It was a home for epileptics and the intellectually disabled, then called "idiotic" and "feeble-minded". And then it became a home for basically everyone society either didn't want to take care of or didn't know how to take care of. And it soon became severely overcrowded. And then it became both overcrowded and underfunded. And then it became a nightmare for it's "children" (the term its patients were given, whether they were six months old or sixty). Understaffing lead to squalid conditions where people were living and dying covered in their own feces and in wounds given to them by either themselves, other patients, or, in some cases, staff members. The government, after numerous lawsuits, shut Pennhurst down for good in 1987. And today, we look at why things got so bad they felt compelled to do so. And, we examine life for the mentally handicapped today in America. Have things gotten any better? What, as a society and culture, are we supposed to do for and with those who can do for themselves? How do we take care of each other? A lot of hard questions are asked in a thought-provoking edition of Timesuck. My new free Behind the Bit Pandora station with Chad Daniels talking about our favorite bits! https://www.pandora.com/station/play/3978690913982414208?ag=17920720304261509 Timesuck is brought to you today by The Great Courses Plus! Do yourself a HUGE favor and get a month of SO MUCH amazing, interesting, and informative content for FREE: https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/timesuck Timesuck is also brought to you be Leesa! We love Leesa! Get $160 off when you go to Leesa.com/timesuck Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Want to try out Discord!?! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions: https://badmagicmerch.com/pages/contact Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG, @timesuckpodcast on Twitter, and www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna be a Space Lizard? We're over 2500 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits. And, thank you for supporting the show by doing your Amazon shopping after clicking on my Amazon link at www.timesuckpodcast.com

In 1968, local channel 10 Philadelphia television reporter Bill Baldini, which is 26 years old, the first time he set foot on Penhurst property. He'd heard from numerous viewers that the local mental health facility, the Penhurst State School and hospital located just a quick 30 minutes northwest of Philly and Spring City, about 30 miles away was a chamber of horrors. He decided to check it out and promise himself that if one tenth of what people told him they saw inside Panhurst was actually happening, he would do an investigative story on the abuse, committed there, and expose it. Baldina was able to get inside Panhurst through a membership with the JC's of Philadelphia. Nice to have a JC sucks subject doing some good this time.

John Wayne Gacy, real big into the JC's, if you will recall. Once inside, Baldini was horrified by what he saw. He said, I was never so shocked and surprised in my life. He recalled telling his boss, what he had seen in this Boston, believe me, first, he begged to do a story that ended up becoming a five part news report for WCA U channel 10 that shocked the people of Delaware Valley. Baldini showed the people in and around Philadelphia what life was like at Pennhurst and they were disgusted and outraged.

They had 80 infants in one ward. Baldini said there were 80 metal cribs standing against the walls inside those cribs were children anywhere from six months to six or seven years old, abandoned to psychologically rot in the facility. His news director and executive producers actually cried when they watched the footage. Usually back then you got one and a half minutes for a story. Baldini would later explain the first story on Pennhurst was seven minutes. Baldini's story eventually led to our government investigating the treatment of the patients

at Pennhurst, which led to the institution being shut down for good. It's a question many of us are still asking. We take a hard look at penhers today and we examine our own recent cultural attitudes towards, you know, people who are intellectually disabled in a let's try and take a look at the way they're doing. And I think that's the way it is. And I think that's the way it is. And I think that's the way it is. And I think that's the way it is. And I think that's the way it is.

And I think that's the way it is. And I think that's the way it is. And I think that's the way it is. And I think that's the way it is. And I think that's the way it is. And I think that's the way it is. And I think that's the way it is. And I think that's the way it is. And I think that's the way it is. And I think that's the way it is. And I think that's the way it is. We take a hard look at penhers today and we examine our own recent cultural attitudes towards, uh, you know, people who are intellectually disabled.

In a let's try and take better care of each other, let's not suffer the little children addition of time suck. Happy Monday time suckers, how you hold up after Friday's episode. I am still feeling a little mentally fragile after suck in my ways to the toy box killer. I keep thinking of that room, man. I keep thinking of that FBI agent who couldn't handle what you've seen and just walked outside and yeah, it's gonna haunt me for a while, I think. There's gonna be some tough moments today, but overall, much more positive episode.

An episode featuring a lot of people trying to do good, trying to do their best to change things for the better. I am Dan Cummins, aka the Jerk Off King. No, wait, no, that's, no, wait, I'm the master but blaster. No, no, that's that sound right. Now I'm the, on the master sucker, there we go, there we go, on the fourth leg about Jangles,

on the voice box of Michael, Motherfucking McDonald. What a fool believes he sees was meant as a power to reason away. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do- lead singer for the world's worst greatest, who world's worst? Greatest. What? Dubie Brothers Coverband. Now you're listening to Time Suck. I'm a spoke there, but I do think that's actually

pretty correct. I think I am the world's best worst Dubie Brothers vocalist, Coverband thing person. All right, it's fucking get away with the Dubie Brothers. Kicking off today with some positive thoughts. You probably need them after that. I'll just blew your ear drums out. Standing positive energy today for Time Sucker Larry

Harold's little girl, Maybury just recently brought into the world on February 15th, already undergoing open heart surgery tomorrow, July 17th. Larry's called upon the time set of community to ask that we say a quick word for his daughter. Quick prayer for Maybury, Harold. So pray to your God, time suckers. Pray to Jesus. Alla, alla, Yahweh, Buddha. Pray to Nimrod. Pray to whoever else you look to for guidance or clarity. Pray

for little Maybree. This braid little champion of a meat sack. She needs your thoughts right now to men to broken little hearts. So I don't know you little Maybree, but I love you. And I'm telling you to fight with everything you've got tomorrow. Don't fuck around little girl. You grow up to be a force of good in this world. A world that can be so cruel and so dark. You grow up, you be one of the good guys. You change things for the better.

Be the beautiful, healthy, well, you know, well balanced, well-intentioned little creature. Your dad needs you to be, I believe in you. And yeah, so our thoughts are with you, our thoughts are with you Larry. Now time for some even more positive energy. We've picked our Spaceless or Charity for July. Thanks to Spaceless or Patreon subscriptions.

We're giving another $500 this month to charity. And this month we're donating it to our very own Adam Theroux's Good People, doinggoodthings.org. His nonprofit organization specializes in random acts of kindness, coffee for firefighters, meals for veterans, books for school kids, toys for kids who can't afford them. A lot of wonderful things. And you can help him. You can help him donate. He's got the Rhode Island. You can go to, you know, good people doing good dot org. And the link is in the episode description today. So

yeah, man, we've got, we've got quite a community. Man, I keep thinking about, yeah, keep thinking about to Larry. Man, I can't imagine, man, I can't imagine what you're feeling right now, but Larry, we are, we are thinking of you, man, we are thinking of you, little girl. Okay, now bit of me promo, not much. Flat earth tour rolls into so Cal today. I hope I had a great time in Orlando. I had to record this before Troutland, Orlando. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna assume it went well. So yay.

Man, I hope, hope well. Hit in the comedy store in La Jolla, California, July 20th through the 22nd. That's this weekend. That's this Friday Saturday and Sunday next week. Hit in Dayton, Ohio just two to lie 27th and 28th. From after there, I'm rolling in a rolling in the side splinters in Tampa. I'm going to beat the Palm Beach improv. I'm going to beat the Zanies in Chicago right across from second city, all that in August. And then I'm going to beat the Denver comedy works at the end of August, do another live time suck

on Sunday the 26th. More tour tour dates more live podcast coming up Portland uh um Tacoma Hollywood Huntington Beach California a lot more at Dancoma's.tv a lot of busy tour next few months. Also thanks again for the continued ratings new time suckers man they mean so much they spread the suck. Let me know that uh the late nights are paying off and I'm on the right path. Sometimes it's been on what they say they help me uh know that I'm on the wrong path and in some's been on what they say they help me know that I'm on the wrong path in some way. I got to step it up and fucking correct it. Got to, got to right the ship. Is that a saying? I think it just made that up. One last thing, limited edition, Gikotilo kits are sold out in the large t-shirt size. Sorry, we will not be making more of that kit.

There's still a lot of exels. You know, still a lot of other sizes. Some of the other sizes are very close to being sold out. So thanks to everyone who got them, they're fucking too ridiculous and I love them. And now let's delve back into a look at the Pennhurst, you know, state hospital and look into our own cultural attitudes towards those who cannot for whatever reason take care of themselves.

[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Before we go any further, there is another times like episode that serves as a good companion to this one. It's way back episode 20 in Saint and Saint of Silems released, you know, January 32, 2017. And that one I give an overview of the, of America's history of how those deemed mentally ill or sometimes, you know, feeble minded as it was called whatever other labels were given to people deemed a burden by society and just how those

people have been treated throughout the history of the u.s. or not treated. It provides some additional context regarding why institutions were built in u.s. and what went on in a lot of them. Also, I do need to just really clarify that on the web, a lot of them also i do need to just really clarify that uh... on the web a lot of info you know seems to portray the pent her state hospital as the pent herst insane asylum and that's that's not true it was uh... it was not that it was an institution for people who were at the time referred to as feeble minded people now said to have intellectual disabilities

it was one of the uh... first institutions of that kind built in the world uh... you know quote unquote insane asylumums had been built for decades kind of prior, had been around a little bit longer, but this was a new type of institution. Okay. So that out of the way, let's dive back into Bill Baldeni's 1968 investigative journalism piece. The first segment of his ex-plase opened with Baldeni narrating over images of the patients at Pennhurst, saying, we ship them 25 miles out of town and forget them while they decay from neglect.

I watched Baldeni's series where viewers see children strapped to beds, crying on dirty floors, rocking back and forth and cradling their heads. It reminds me honestly of scenes from American horror stories second season that asylum. That season's set in insane asylum where people who shouldn't be there were there, you know, where a quote unquote sane people would be mixed in with people with severe, you know, cognitive disabilities or mental illnesses, a place where you would absolutely dread to be taken to a place you try and escape from a place like a penhurst. But any continues saying the horrible and almost any humane conditions that prevail at

penhurst are not the fault of a handful of dedicated doctors and administrators that are employed there? No, the children, as they are called, are rotting in their dreadful plate. We can thank society for for saking them. We have failed them. Uh, I think it's supposed to be rotting in this dreadful place. I don't know. Maybe that's some fun language he had. That's the quote pulled from another transcript of his of his series dreadful dreadful plate. All right. Baldini's footage is powerful

disturbing stuff, man. There are, you know, these people's children, their brother, sisters, sons, and daughters. And in a few years later, with the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University, Baldini claimed the conditions were soabilities at Temple University, Baldini claimed the conditions were so bad at Pennhurst that, you know, what their witnessing was so gut-wrenching and jarring that his sound and camera operators wanted to walk out. He had to give him breaks so they could emotionally reset themselves in order to keep filming for five straight days. He claims the reaction from the public was so strong after his first segment, Eric

that his boss told him to go immediately back there and continue shooting so they could air another segment the next night. People were outraged and intrigued. Could this really be happening in their America? Could it really be happening in 1968? Baldy, you work himself under the ground investigating panheurs. He actually seemed when you watch his footage, he seems visibly just frazzled and exhausted. You know, he's irritated. You watch the interviews he conducts with some of the doctors and staff. He can't hide his disgust and frustration. It's actually a little uncomfortable watching him grill some of the employees who honestly

seem to be doing the best job they can. You know, just they're just working in horrible conditions. And I feel for him, man, I do understand their position in a small way. When I, you know, very briefly worked in the system, so to speak, working at child protective services where I started, then at the crisis residential treatment center and some other group homes around Spokane, little after that, easily one of the hardest parts

of those jobs, one of the aspects that got to me the most was a feeling of just utter powerlessness. You know, you knew a lot of times what needed to be done, which should be done, but you didn't have the power to do it. You know, it couldn't be pulled off. Like, you knew that many of the people you're working with needed maybe be placed in it in the care of someone else. You know, I was working with a lot of teens.

You know, sometimes you met other relatives who were dying to provide a good home for the kids you're working with. And you know, you knew they would be a good guardian, but oftentimes the kids current guardian or parent or you know, was a fucking dirt bag. You know, somebody you knew just never gonna provide loving, safe home for them.

Just wasn't willing to sign the papers though, to let someone else do the job they clearly couldn't. That happened a lot. You know, sometimes maybe they're pride, maybe they wanted that welfare money, maybe they just, you know, we're just a fucking hateful person who didn't want to see their own kid have a chance to do better life.

There are those parents out there, man, if there's one thing we've learned over and over here on the suck, there's some fucking pieces of shit out there. And, you know, there was nothing you could do to change some of these asshole's minds, and so you would end up placing a kid back into a home where you knew they were being abused. You knew they were probably being molested in some cases.

You know, at the very least horribly neglected and there wasn't a fucking thing you could do about it. That used to tear me apart. You know, sometimes it's easy to know what the problem is, but it is a whole nother can of worms. You got to deal with the, to actually fix the problem, to actually solve it. Oh, Baldini did his damnedest to try and figure out

a solve the problem who's looking at in Pinterest. He worked himself sick, you know, literally shooting, writing, producing, editing, sleeping, in the women's room on the, the new station, probably three to four hours a night to expose every problem he could find. So by the fifth day, he lost his voice to exhaustion, did no longer narrate his own program. And that really is from the articles that says that he's sleeping in the women's room. I thought that was like a weird note. Like, why can't you sleep in the men's room?

I'm guessing because the women's room probably had like a little fucking, like a little, not a couch. But I'm trying to think why I've been in some women's rooms, but I have, I don't know why I would have now, trying to figure out what, but I have memories, I've memories have seen like a little bench, like a little padded bench in some of those, where I guess you can sit and watch your friend,

I don't know, pee in the stall, or just wait for her to be done. You don't have those in a lot of men's restrooms. Say, and men's restrooms, sometimes I've had like, oh, this is why I've done it. Sometimes what I'll do is if I'm out in public and the men's room is locked, I really gotta go.

I'm just like, I fuck out, I just go in the women's room. If it's a one in the timer, for sure. I won't go into it if it's multiple, unless someone's guarding the door. But I have noticed that the conditions in a women's restroom tend to be way better than conditions in men's restrooms. I know some of you women already know this already

probably most of you that men can be fucking just dirty animals when it comes to bathroom hygiene. Partly do to us having to stand up and shoot it a little farther to get in the toilet in some cases. But Jesus, like even as a guy, I'm amazed at some of the horror shows. I've seen in the bathroom, which is like,

dude, how did you shit there? How did you even get it there? Like what is going on in the floor around here? Did someone just die in here? Did I just miss paramedics taking out a dead body? And but for some reason, they didn't shut the bathroom down for like any kind of crime scene and they didn't clean it.

Anyway, maybe that's, I'm getting way too far off track thinking about why he was sleeping in the women's room. But anyway, he couldn't even narrate the last installment. He lost his voice. He just from exhaustion, a colleague stepped into narrate it. Because what he found was intense, man, there was only two attendants. For example, watching those 80 kids in the cages

we mentioned earlier, when he asked why the kids were put in cages and why they also couldn't walk, he was told they didn't have enough staff to set up mattresses on the floor in order for these children to learn how to crawl. So they just like basically just left them in cages. And again, children, six, six seven years old in this instance. Didn't know how to walk, didn't know how to talk, just, you know, sitting in the little cage.

So yeah, fucking Terrell. In an interview with Dr. Jesse Fear, and that really is his name. There was a dude there working there named Dr. Fear. Dr. Fear, your patients here to see, uh, fuck it's terrible. He, uh, he shared other disturbing details of Paners with Baldini, like how residents who would act out would be punished by downgrading them a little bit. This is a weird thing to do to somebody. By this, what he would mean is that, say somebody has an IQ of like 80,

someone's just a few points outside the normal range, but their family couldn't take care of them for whatever reason. You know, it could be somebody who just needs a loving family, a stable home and education more than treatment if they if they got that they can become a function member of society and then uh... these people be frustrated that they're fucking stuck in a institution you know and uh... they would act out and then you know punishment they'd be put in a

in a different level of one of the buildings different room with people of uh... iq's of say like you know ten twenty thirty people who didn't know how to speak, people who could have a severe cognitive disabilities might flail themselves about wildly or constantly scream or shit on the floor, try to hit or kick anybody who came near them. Can you imagine being locked in a ward like that

if you're a person with an IQ in or borderline in the normal range. You know, then the person just to cherry on top, the person putting you there as a fucking doctor, fear, it's ridiculous. While the only point out that the local zoo treated its animals better than the patients who treated it at Pennhurst,

more money was spent on food and care, on average for animals in the zoo, than on humans at Pennhurst, like the zoo would spend 7, each day on an animal where Penn hurst only spent 590 per resident at the time of the airing. They all supported out that animals were in less crowded conditions at the zoo than the people were at Pennhurst. The superintendent claimed that the capacity of Pennhurst was 1,984 residents.

At the time of Baldini's investigation, there were 2,791 one residents that's forty percent above absolute max capacity and uh... and i do stress that uh... you know he was he was out outraged but baldenes report never points at the employees of panors as being the real problem he points at the system being the real problem the institution was not getting proper funding it wasn't properly staffed you know for, for example, there was 900 women living there, but not one full time gynecologist. There are, you know, no teachers working there, with special education degrees. Officials knew that hundreds of patients should be transferred

to better institutions, but couldn't do so. Couldn't, couldn't find other institutions to take them. The more doctors needed to be hired, the buildings needed to be either rebuilt many cases or condemned than others, but they didn't have the funds to do any of that. Eventually something would be done. Baldini's report would lead eventually to, you know, more investigations, which would then lead to some lawsuits, which would then lead to the facility being closed down. And then tragically, as a weird end note to the story, Baldini would end up spending the rest of his life in prison after being found guilty of flashing his penis at several kids near several Philadelphia grade schools in 1971.

Now, let's dig into the rise and fall of Pennhurst in today's Time Suck timeline. Shrap on those boots, soldier. We're marching down a time suck timeline. Quick note before we begin. Uh, but, Baldini to my knowledge never flashes penis to anyone. I just want to let you sit on that for a little bit. Uh, kid or not. What if I can weird footnote to his story that would have been, and what a weird thing

for me not to address, just to be like, yeah, this guy is a social justice warrior. He exposed a lot of things and he, yeah, if I can show this, it's some kids. Anyway, uh, and I'm moving on. I mean, that'd be terrible for the, for the story. Baldini fought for the people of Philly who could not fight for themselves. He was a champion of social justice and reform. And then inexplicably he started a weapons dick out around town, local schools. Baldini's wini was the headline in a lot of papers.

Baldini's wini made one too many cameos on October 7, 1971, near the monkey bars of Radney Elementary School. He was incarcerated and then never heard from again. Why couldn't Baldini get ahold of his Weenie? Or rather, why couldn't he let it go more often? Anyway, 1897, the Poke Center opens. It's the first state opera institution in Pennsylvania for people with intellectual disabilities.

Prior to institutions, the mentally ill and the mentally impaired were generally cared for or not cared for by their families or put in Almshouses in the US. And the quality of care varied considerably. Some people were cared for by their families and some were locked in a room or basement or attic. Sound terrific on the surface. And it is. And you know, it's locked in a room or basement or attic. Sounds horrific on the surface and it is. And you know, it's sort of sometimes it was, but people don't always have the resources

to handle the burden life is placed upon them. That's what I always think about with stories like this. You know, a lot of people get so fucking outraged, but it's like, would they do anything here? Any different? Like, oh my God, how could they just lock them away? All right. What would you do?

What would you do if you're some 19th century homesteader? You're struggling to grow enough crops to feed the family of 10 you got, you know two of the kids have polio already Dead as a bad back mom has a gout. Everyone has a touch of scurvy a lot of scurvy back there There's no run of water no indoor plumbing You living in a two-room shanty And then you know the eighth kid is born with severe disabilities mentally and physically You know this eighth kids never gonna be able to help around the house never gonna be able to work to farm needs to be fed cleaned kept from hurting himself Pretty soon even though he needs the care of an infant

He's too big to hold too big to put in a sling What if given him the care he needs take so much time away from other family duties other farm duties That you're putting the whole family at risk on some level in order to take care of one member of the family. Now, I may be being a little bit dramatic, but only to illustrate the point. It's not always possible to make only noble fair decisions for everybody in life. Again, easy to say how could you, but truly how would you truly do anything better? Food for thought in this episode. This is going to be a big theme here.

What is the solution? Before institutions designed, we're designed for the mentally impaired or the disabled. People are also placed in Almshouses, which were large group homes built, usually by churches to provide for those in the community who could not take care of themselves. And these places were kind of a little bit of everything. The house the mentally ill, cognitively delayed or impaired, the feeble, the elderly, you know, sometimes orphans, sometimes oftentimes, you know, like people who are like blind, the feeble, the elderly, you know, sometimes orphans, sometimes oftentimes, you know, like people who are like blind, deaf, paralyzed,

you know, unable to take care of themselves for a number of other reasons. There wasn't specialized care because there wasn't specialist, you know, it wasn't fucking physical therapists, it wasn't experts when it came to how to care for people with a variety of disabilities that just, that just didn't exist.

Five years later, an act of the Pennsylvania legislature created Pennhurst State School in hospital May 15th, 1903, and the Eastern Pennsylvania State institution for the feeble minded and epileptic. That's all kind of like to part of this big one complex. This pairing with today's knowledge of various medical conditions is obviously less than ideal. People who suffer from some condition that results in them having an extremely low IQ and people who suffer from seizures are two very different groups of

people. Epilepsy is a central nervous system, a neurological disorder, which brain activity becomes abnormal, causing seizures or periods of unusual behavior, sensations and sometimes loss of awareness, according to the Mayo Clinic, anyone can develop epilepsy. Epilepsy affects both males and females of all races, ethnic backgrounds, and ages. Seizure symptoms can vary widely. Some people with epilepsy simply stare blankly for a few seconds during a seizure. Others repeatedly twitch their arms or legs. Treatment with medication, or sometimes surgery, excuse me, can control seizures for the majority of people with epilepsy. Some people require lifelong treatment to control seizures, but for others, the seizures

eventually go away. Some children with epilepsy may outgrow the condition with age. Now, note the clinic doesn't say anything about any sort of cognitive impairment, any sort of intellectual disability. How shitty would that be if you're very intelligent? You know, hyper aware of what's happening around you. And then you're committed to an institution where you are locked up with people literally,

and I'm not being flippant or insulting, but people literally drooling on themselves, unable to speak, borderline catatonic, people literally banging their heads into the wall, mumble into themselves, people literally pissing and shitting themselves, et cetera. Yeah, they put some fucking straight jacket on you. It does nothing to help your seizures at all.

Does leave you unable to defend yourself from the variety of untreated, you know, mental impairment that surrounds you. That does not sound fun. Also, initially, I should note that epileptics and the intellectually disabled were housed in separate locations, but I paint that scenario because overcrowding almost immediately led to many of them sharing the same space. Between 1903 and 1908, the first buildings of the Eastern State Institution for the

Feeville-Minded and Epileptic are completed on a site known locally as Crab Hill, an area named after the hundreds or possibly even thousands of forest crabs that lived on the hill at the time. Now, weird side note, sadly because of the institution's construction, this local subspecies of the eastern North American land crab now thought to be completely extinct. But for the first few years of the institution being open, these land crabs were a bit of a problem. They had to be exterminated on numerous occasions.

They kept building nests inside the walls of the hospital, said to be the size of house cats. And while their pinchers were not strong enough to cut off a finger or a toe, they could and did pinch hard enough to create gashes that had to be closed with stitches a lot of the time. They could also fly short distances using some kind of helicopter propeller type of appendage emanating from the center of their backs. And they could start fires with their minds.

Land crabs, by the way, are in the same animal genus as the floor to sea chicken, which includes a variety of other species that are not fucking real. Tell me, tell me one of you. Still thought, still thought for a few seconds that there used to be a small small forest crab living in Pennsylvania that could also fly around like a weird little helicopter. No, no, I have no idea what Krab Hill's named after. The facility is situated in Chester County near the burrow of Spring City. I'm a fucking jackass. I just keep thinking about these Krab's. Sorry, that's funny. It was a huge institution.

It was a whole complex of structures. The Philadelphia building, Quaker Hall, Rockwell Hall, Franklin Hall, Noble Hall, Union Hall, Vincent's Hall, Tinnockam Hall, Industry, a lot of fucking halls. Most of the buildings were completed within the first two years, the facilities opening, numerous farm buildings also completed in the first wave of construction, as well as a sewage plant, as well as a power plant. And it had all this shit because, well, today Philly has basically grown to the point that, you know, Pennhurst was located in the suburbs of the suburbs, down the road from outlet mall.

But back then, it was in the country. That was part of the point of it. You know, I think Baldena said 25 miles. When I looked at Mac OS, it said about 30 miles from Philly proper. To be away from the city, separated from everybody, it was the point of it sent, you know, people were sent to a place where no one would have to see him.. No one have to think about him, you know, truly ostracized from the people of Philadelphia so they don't have to feel any guilt over sending them over there. And there is another reason they were sent far away to see more fucked up. The so-called best

minds of the 19th century have become convinced that poverty, crime, prostitution, drunkenness, et cetera, all caused by, quote, mental defect. And removing the quote defectives from society and prevented their pro-preventing, excuse me, their pro-creation would certainly solve the problem of the feeble minded. For all time, you know, while doing so, it also cured the ills of society for which they were being blamed. Penhurst was a product of pseudoscience that asserted that people with intellectual disabilities needed to be shot away from the world

for their own benefit, and more important of these people for the benefit of the larger society around them. You know, these people thought they could rid society of essentially like criminal nature by sending people with cognitive disorders, out to institutions and keeping them from breeding. I'm not sure how they arrived at this conclusion

about, you know, like the criminal stuff. Like had any of these leading minds ever met a criminal? You know, I mean, a lot of criminals, you know, or anything, but feeble minded. I mean, did they think Billy the Kid and the Jesse James gang, all those guys were, uh, other outlaws were mentally handicapped? But I'm pretty sure you don't pull off a stagecoach robbery if literally everyone in your gang has the intellectual capacity of like a young child. I feel like the leading minds of the day could have thought this one through a little bit more, a little less.

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shit. The original idea for Pennhurst was to erect a facility for for not less than 500 persons and specified the building shall be in two groups, one for educational and industrial department and one for the custodial or asylum department. It was declared that this institution shall be entirely and specifically devoted to the reception, detention, care, and training of epileptics and of idiotic and feeble-minded persons of either sex. Shall provide separate classification of the numerous groups embraced under the terms, epileptics, and idiotic and and imbicel, and feeble-minded. I know this term's changed, don't they?

Cases afflicted with other epilepsy, paralysis, you'll have a due proportion of space and care in the custodial department, and I'll talk about that. Specifically, determined that the process of an agricultural training course shall be primarily considered in the educational department, employment of the inmates in the care and raising of stock and the cultivation of small fruits, vegetables, roots, etc. She'll be made tributary when possible to the maintenance of an institution. All inmates shall be subject to such rules and regulations as the Board of Trustees may adopt. And yes, you are hearing about how they were supposed to work, which I'm not, I don't

know, morally opposed to, but that became a big kind of problem too, is basically, so many people became essentially like indentured servants or really, I guess, the more proper term would be slaves, like they weren't able to leave, they weren't allowed to leave, and they had to work. A lot of the food would be grown at panhurst for the people of panhurst by the inmates. Inmates, patients, but I say inmates because of my mind, it seems like a prison. And again, eventually because of overcrowding separation of different groups could not last. One person, you know, is there because they're IQs 20 and others there because they have seizures. Someone else has no seizures. IQs above average, but you know, they're the paralyzed.

The legs don't work right and off to panthers they go. It ended up being essentially just this aisle of misfit toys. The construction of panhurst, almost a continual process for 25 years, beginning when the legislature authorized institution, 1903, stopping at the end of the 1920s when the Great Depression began. The Easter in Pennsylvania institution admitted its first client on November 23rd, 1908, and there were problems basically right from the start. Beginning as early as 1912, board reports reports contained numerous complaints about the need for funds to enact changes and repairs to buildings that were less than a decade old.

So it opened four years. There are already like aft shits falling apart. 1912 report included requests for 25,000 for general repairs on buildings that had only been used for four years again, include on the list of needed work was to paint the buildings, replace unsanitary closets and unsafe bathrooms, rebuild stairways, add such ventilating apparatus, this is absolutely necessary, overcrowding, what's the problem, almost as soon as panherst opened its doors.

Designed originally as I've stated for epileptics and persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, there was tremendous pressure almost immediately to admit many different people, many other different people from society steeped in a society steeped in a eugenics movement who wanted to remove from the gene pool of various people including just immigrants orphans criminals. I am going to come back to the phrase eugenics movement here in a bit for now we're going to keep going but yeah, that's the't, there wasn't a specialization we have now. And they just

basically, you know, anybody, some family didn't want to take care of for whatever reason, they would try and put them in an institution of some sort. The state admission of Panhurst to House Appaleptics and the Feeville MIND came under fire within the institution as early as 1912 as well. And that year, the super intended reported to the Board of Trustees in chilling language that it is without question absolutely wrong to place the Feeville MINDED and epileptic 1912 as well. And that year the super intended reported to the Board of Trustees in chilling language that it is without question absolutely wrong to place def evil minded and epileptic in the same institution. They are not the same. They are different. One from the other, one as day, one as night. They are mentally, physically, and morally incompatible and require entirely different treatment.

So, at least some people back then understood how stupid it was to house epileptics alongside those with severe intellectual disabilities. However, the admission of individuals with epilepsy and normal intelligence would continue for years. Why? Because again, the society just didn't know where else to put these people. Didn't have any other place to put these people. Eventually, however, the mission of the institution was eventually clarified.

For a while, only people with intellectual disabilities were admitted. Now while the terms mental hospital and insane asylum are often used in association with penance again It was neither it was it was supposed to be this idyllic thriving community for those who did not fit to societal norms It was supposed to be an institution that you know has this work in farm with cows chickens and pigs and A bunch of different crops had an orchard, you know with cherry trees, there was a shoe repair shop, mattress making facility, not at least one. And also not a shit one, to my knowledge.

They also weren't making mattresses out of shit. They had a wood shop, rug weave and course. You know, the people who tried to build some life skills, some people eventually, you know, would get out of Pennhurst and be able to go hold, you know, jobs and things. They had a dances, boys scout troops troops, baseball teams visits from the circus. For many years, the, uh, the Hoxie brother circus would make a annual one day appearance

at Pennhurst. I guess some of the residents would join the circus during the Daniel visits. I, my mind, I picture some of them escaping with the circus, uh, holiday parties, band concerts, Easter egg hunts with the big Easter egg bunny. I can, uh, Halloween parties with a great pumpkin, all kinds of stuff. And in here and all that, in a way kind of bums me out because, you know, you can tell there was a lot of people there who were clearly trying to make panherstice desirable place to live, this desirable place for people to stay who are intellectually, you know, disabled

and it just didn't work out. It's just the vision did not last, and it's sad that it became such a sad place to be. They just didn't know their heart was in the right place, they just didn't know how to make life consistently good for those people. Maybe they could have figured it all out if they would have had access to a little more knowledge.

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I use them on the regular for my research now. And with the Great Courses Plus, we've arranged a special limited time offer for our Time Sucker. Sign up for a free month of unlimited access to all the lectures at thegreatcoursesplus.com slash Time Suck. That's the Great Courses plus dot com slash time suck. Start your free month episode link or excuse me link to the great courses plus dot com slash time suck in the episode description. All right, 1913 Pennsylvania legislature, partially in response to concerns raised by the Penn or Penn her sport of trustees pointed a commission for the care of the feeble-minded. The commission's conclusions included statements

that the feeble-minded were unfit for citizenship and they posed a menace to the peace of society. They recommended a program of custodial care to break the endless reproductive chain. Many were placed in the care of Pennhurst removed from society sometimes for decades. None of the patients were free to leave. In regard to the sub IQ level,

they were treated as children in their whole lives, referred to as children in their whole lives unpaid labor is provided By the committee becomes essential to the survival of the institution You know, they become a slave labor, you know forced to work at the facility work boys and quote work girls We're found in every part of the facility patients providing care for other patients many times Working in the coastalial department in the laundry the kitchen housekeeping maintenance facilities The Board started making some money off this place. They reported a profit of more than $50,000 for the farming operation Of a two-year period ending in May 1926 adjusted for inflation the 50,000 in earnings

Will be equivalent to more than 650,000 today. In 1921, 1922, the institution laundry process nearly 1.7 million pieces of clothing, bedding and other goods. This mountain of work was was completed by four paid employees and 40 quote unquote patients. So, you know, they had a lot of people being forced to work there. In 1918, Pennhurstst was built as a world apart from the rest of society, both to keep the feeble minor from the public also to end the intermixing of their genes

with the population. And I keep hinting around it. Yeah, this is that whole eugenics thing. Part of what I, you know, as touched on earlier, you know, that I keep in the intellectually disabled criminals from breeding, the thought was you could end crime. This was a serious notion in the early 20th uh... you know there there there's this belief that certain personality traits could and should be bred out of the population

or uh... or rather you know uh... no longer be allowed to continue to be bred into the population everyone ever wants to talk about Hitler when it comes to eugenics or forced sterilization program but there was a lot of talk at at high levels of society government about enacting eugenics or forced sterilization program. But there was a lot of talk at high levels of society and government about enacting eugenics laws in America in the early 20th century as well. It got really popular in the 1920s, 1930s,

but it started before that. There was actually a film called The Black Stork, came out early film, came out in 1917, supposedly based on a true story. It depicted a heroic doctor that allowed a syphilitic infant to die after convincing the child's parents that it was better to spare society one more outcast. That's a fucking movie.

Or what are people clapping at that part? Get the bravo, good for him, let the baby die. The American Eugenic Society was found in the 1920s. The term Eugenics was first coined by Englishman Francis Galton in the mid 1800s. Galt was an the mid 1800s. Galt was an intellectual whose body of workspan many fields including statistics, psychology, meteorology, genetics.

And so, down he was also the half-custom Charles Darwin, I've heard of him. Galton's first academic foray into eugenics analyzed the characteristics such as superior intelligence of England's upper classes and concluded they were hereditary. Uh, therefore desirable traits that can be passed down, uh, through generations. Now, Galt navigated a selective breeding program for humans in his book, hereditary genius, saying consequences, consequently, as it is easy to obtain by careful selection, a permanent breed of dogs or horses gifted with peculiar powers of running or of doing anything else. So it would be quite practical to produce a highly gifted race of men by judicious marriages during several consecutive generations. Now obviously

this this whole kind of notion was tainted very much. The well was poisoned very strongly when when Hitler got a hold of this information was like yeah that's how we fucking that's how we get to the white master race going. Uh as I as I yell that I again think about the neighbors in the building that's could maybe only hear me say that you know they just they just hear like mumbling and then they hear me scream white master race like ah fuck or worse they're like, oh yeah, yeah, exactly. Okay, so panthers becomes part of this movement. The sexes were separated on the panor's campus to keep people from reproducing was a large part of that.

And the biennial report to the legislator submitted by the board of trustees, Panher's chief physician, quotes Dr. Henry Goddard, a leading eugenicist, it's followed saying, every feeble-minded person is a potential criminal. This is the main doctor at Penhurst. The quote was used to support the argument for an expansion of the institution, goes on

to say the general public, although more convinced today than ever before, that it is a good thing to segregate the idiot or the distinct imbecile. They have not as yet been convinced as to the proper treatment of the defective delinquent, which is the brighter and more dangerous individual. It is now generally understood that feeble-mindedness is in the great majority of instances the direct result of hereditary transmission of mental defect. It is also known that the feeble-minded female is very likely to bear children and that these children are almost certain to be defective or in some way permanently dependent. The feeble-minded girl is more of a menace to society

than the feeble-minded boy. Statistics show that feeble-minded girls and boys marry in the ratio of three to one. It would seem therefore that the state is not adequately, that if the state is not adequately equipped to care for all of the feeble-minded, the feeble-minded girls should have institutional care and preference to the boy since she is the greater menace.

Fucked up language man, fucked up language here. Super insulting. Again, forced sterilization never caught on as a real political or scientific movement in this country since it died out after the world saw what a Hitler's eugenic movement looked like. However, in the cases of certain people who are truly incapable of raising their own children, I don't necessarily, I know this is not

a popular opinion, I don't necessarily disagree with some kind of mandatory sterilization. In some sense, I mean, I do have a fucking bit on mandatory sterilization in one of my standup specials. And hear me out, I'm not going fucking Hitler. I can't hit learn anybody. This is nothing to do with race. To me, it has to do with common sense and trying to prevent the most senseless tragedy you can. And let me tell you a story about why I have this belief.

All right, this comes from personal experience. Well, I cannot recall her name. There was a woman I supervised child visits for at child protective services back in Spoke and watched him many years ago a woman I'll never forget She was only allowed to see her kids a few times a month. I believe it was twice a month For an hour and a half 90 minutes at a time and only at the local CPS offices where we had visitation rooms Little rooms a few toys few chairs and big window, so anyone walking down the hall, used in actual social worker,

you know, I was just an intern, could peek in. My job, my horrible job was to sit in one of the chairs and one of these little rooms with the clipboard, sit in there, you know, with the kid or kids and the parents or parents, and take notes on the visitation. Take notes on the visitation while the visit was happening was the parent engaged with a child. Did the child seem responsive to the parent?

Did the child seem like they wanted to be there? Did the child seem like they wanted the parent to be there? Was a child happy when the parent showed up for the visit? Was a child sad when they left? It was a fucking terrible job. It will haunt me on some level forever. It felt like I was sitting in a big pit of fucking sadness and despair. I got to share hour after hour,

some of the saddest moments of these families' lives. The kids would be driven to our offices by whatever relative they're living with or foster parent or social worker or employee of some group home where they were saying, a lot of tears shed in those visits by a lot of people. And it was always hardest on the kids. The kids either loved their parents dearly

and didn't want the visit to end and have to be sent back to wherever, whatever home or facility they were staying at. Or the kids were furious with or hated their parents and didn't want to see them at all. So you either felt terrible for the parent or parents or terrible for the kid or kids or sad for fucking everyone.

It was just a loose, loose, loose situation. And anyway, this one woman, her visits and just a lose, lose, lose situation. And anyway, this one woman, her visits, uh, and visitation rights made no sense to me. She was allowed to see her kid, the kid that I was supervising the visits for, but she was never going to be allowed to bring him home, not ever. Uh, she'd never be allowed to be in a room, a, a room, excuse me, alone with her kid. And why? Because she was a convicted level three sex defender. I do not remember the exact nature of the molestation charge against her.

I do remember that she had been molested herself and that it was an instance of her acting out on a very young child like under the age of two. And I also don't remember her coming across as a predator. She came across as someone who didn't understand why it was wrong to behave sex. She was a child. And why didn't she understand? Because she was very intellectually disabled.

She was very cognitively impaired. She had an IQ. I think somewhere down in the 50s, she lived on disability money. And the kid she was visiting wasn't her only kid. I found out she had several her social worker, a man named SiVoo told me that she had a kid every year or two. She's probably 31. I met her and that every time she had another kid, it was taken from the hospital, from

the neonatal unit, you know, at the hospital placed in a group home immediately due to the combination of her sex offender status and her intellectual disability. So not illegal for her to get pregnant, but illegal for her to keep her own baby and raise it. So I asked why doesn't the state sterilizer to me that made the most sense in this particular situation. And honestly, it's still fucking does. And see who looked at me like my name was Adolf Hitler.

And he talked about how that can never happen because of the history of the Nazi's genetics program and essentially the inherent immorality of a eugenics program in general. But I wonder, what is more inhumane? What's more immoral, forcing an American citizen to be sterilized or placing one baby after another into foster care?

Babies that you could prevent being put into that system. You know, what seemed imm moral to me was allowing this woman to keep having kids, you know, that she would sometimes be allowed to visit, which I still don't fucking understand, and that she'd never be allowed to race. What kind of sense does that make? To me, forced realization in some cases is the most moral thing you can do to prevent future human suffering.

It's not right to send more babies into an overburdened foster and adoption system, you know, when it can be easily avoided. And not a popular opinion I know, but I do think it has some logic to it. I do imagine also, I do know the most logical I feel, some of you be like, nah, here's why we can't do this. And I will address this. I imagine the most logical argument against it is the slippery slope argument, which is in this instance, you know, if you legislate for sterilization in this particular situation, then it could end up being carried out in a similar situation, but maybe not quite as black and white, you know, and then in another similar, similar situation, similar to the previous one, not as obvious, less

obvious, and it keeps becoming less and less obvious and it keeps going so on and so forth until eventually sterilizations are being carried out in a morally ambiguous or morally questionable or morally reprehensible situations like when someone who just can't, you know, maybe can't curly afford to have another child, but might be able to in the future. And suddenly, you know, if I can third-write, here we are, all over again. Okay. So maybe CVU was right to tell me that my idea was bad in that sense. You know, it might be best in that one situation, but it could then be later

used in situations. It shouldn't be able to be used in. So damn it. No, again, no easy solutions, man. No easy solutions is the is the theme of this suck today. Okay. So in 1930, the first buildings on the upper campus known as the female colony are completed at Pennhurst, also 1930. Another labor training facilities

opened. The chief physician stating that the manual training department is a place of interest to the boys. They are taught the names, uses and care of tools, learn to handle them properly by daily practice. First, make simple articles requiring no joint, such as match scratchers, coat hangers, etc. And after that, they've mastered the rudiments of fitting and joining. They can handle their tools with ease. They are allowed to make small tables, chairs, tools, et cetera. And then a lot of these things would be sold. Many beautiful and useful articles, you know, again, made for sale to visitors and relatives,

profit going to the children's amusement fun, which would purchase luxuries such as Easter eggs, Christmas gifts, party prizes, you know, which again is cool, but also kind of like kind of buns me out. And they had to, you know, make furniture so they could, Christmas gifts, party prizes, which again is cool, but also kind of like a, kind of buns me out, man, that they had to make furniture so they could have Christmas gifts. Ah, it's fucking sad. Also at the age of 14, the female students would attend the home economic department at the completion of this course.

Each girl would be capable of preparing and serving the complete meal. You know, there would be beneficial trainings such as pressing, mending, and sewing. So again, you know, clearly some people trying to make life as nice as it is possible for the patients of Pennhurst. Long before Baldini showed up with his investigative cameras, it just, it wasn't always terrible,

it wasn't terrible in theory. Staffing was an issue early on at Pennhurst for the first 50 years of its existence. The majority of Pennhurst employees were required to live on campus. I bet that hurt recruiting a little bit. In the early years, the lack of suitable housing was often cited as one of the reasons why it was hard to hire and keep staff.

Yeah, of course. You just, hey, you should apply Paners, man. Pay is good, hours aren't that bad. They provide housing. That's cool. Where do you put your up? I didn't think Paners was near any town. I thought it was the middle of nowhere.

Yeah, no, they put you up in Panhears. It's not bad. You get used to it. After a while, you can kind of barely hear the screams in cries at night when you're trying to fall asleep. Yeah, sounds like a nightmare. An informational booklet sent out in the 1940s reveals a continued over crowding at Panhears.

Saying the patient population is at present approximately 2,400 with a waiting list of nearly 1500 Yeah, that's and that's hundreds over capacity boys and girls are equally divided live in two separate colonies children admitted between the ages of six and sixteen In the in the 1940s also a dark side of panhurst begins to grow There were there were two panhurst from the beginning. The legislature created them, you know, when they directed that the building shall be in two groups, which we said earlier.

Now there's that educational industrial department, and then there's that custodial and asylum department. And there was some public awareness of the educational and industrial department, but very little public awareness of the other departments, very little photos come from that era. Basically like all the kind of promo for the facility would be from the educational and industrial department,

which is people who are a little higher functioning. That's where all the baseball teams and all the kids doing different activities and stuff. That's what they were staying. The other part, the custodial or silent department was kind of invisible because it'd become incredibly fucking sad. It'd become a nightmare for patients to be due to chronic neglect and understaffing.

You know, basically like the, the patient's housed in the custodial department were thought to be too intellectually disabled, to be able to be educated or to be able to contribute and any kind of work, uh, fashion of the institution. So they were just kind of left to rot, uh, neglected, you know, much and much, uh, fast at the institution. So they were just kind of left to rot, uh, neglected, you know, much and much, uh, much and much less staff would be devoted, devoted to their care, you know, their buildings would be the last to be repaired or, uh, you know, any kind of funding giving to them and the quarters began to fall into just, you know, just disgusting, disrepair that would, uh, just get worse as time goes on that we'll talk

about in some kind of court testimony that I'll mention later from when the place eventually gets sued and shut down. In 1955, the in-house population of Paners peaks at 3,500 individuals. It's like over 1,500 beyond capacity. Two annexes of the facility are opened and former tuberculosis sanitariums. Hundreds of residents are transferred to these new facilities. The availability of this additional capacity allows for the population to then grow to 4,100 individuals with 3,200 by 1961 living in the kind of core part of the facility. By 1967 it's not uncommon for no more than two attendants to be assigned to a residence

housing up to 100 individuals. That's not a good ratio, two to 100. The actual care and supervision of the residence many times is carried out by patients themselves, by those work boys and work girls. And then in 1968, you know, Baldini shows up. You know, right before he gets in trouble for Baldini's winning. Now I gotta stop saying that. This guy, this guy, this guy, is an amazing guy.

I don't want you to take that away from the episode. But he shows up, does his expose, numerous news for articles, legislative inquiries, and other investigations follow. There were also been a number of ones that had already happened before this expose. But things just kept getting swept under the rug. People get outraged for a second, and then things would go back to normal quote unquote, it penhers 1971, the Pennsylvania chapter of the arc and advocacy organization for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities files a lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

1972, the lawsuit is settled and it establishes the right to attend public schools to all children with intellectual disabilities. And for them to no longer be shunned because children with intellectual disabilities prior to them to no longer be shunned because children intellectual disabilities prior to this in Pennsylvania were had been excluded from public school even if they weren't staying in an institution like Pennhurst. They weren't allowed to go to school. On May 30th, 1974, the landmark civil rights case, Halderman versus Pennhurst State School was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern

District of Pennsylvania by a mother of a Panhurst resident. The case would eventually reach the US Supreme Court and be assigned a district judge Raymond Broderick. The United States of America moved intervene as a plaintiff in the Holderman case excerpts from the from the fact section of the federal district court case demonstrate the horrific conditions that lack of funding created at Panhurst. You know, it was only through the dedication of the overwork staff. It seemed that any humanity at all was afforded to people in this institution.

Let's talk about some of these experts. This is the court experts of what was going on there. And this is in, you know, this isn't that long ago. This is in the early 70s. I said, no psychologists are on duty at Pennhurst at night or over the weekend. Thus, if a resident has an emotional crisis here or she may go without treatment until the next morning or until the weekend is over, at Pennhurst restraints are used as control measures and lieu of adequate staffing.

Restrains can either be physical or chemical. The physical restraints range from placing the individual into a seclusion room to binding the person's hands or ankles with muffs or poses, binding the individual to a bed or to a bear. That'll be a fucking weird turn. People were outraged because a lot of the patients were being strapped to bears. They had several black bears and two grizzlies. The grizzlies were used in extreme cases and when a patient really acted out, they were

strapped to a bear and they're like, all right, well, you now you get to fucking spend 12 hours on a grizzly's back. That is insane. No, they were bound to a bed or chairs. Chemical restraints were, you know, be like psychotropic medication, you know, tranquilization. Other physical restraints could be used due to staff shortages. Extreme example is a female resident who during the month of June set in 1976, was physically restrained for 651 total hours and five minutes. For the month of August, she was in physical restraints for 720 hours.

During September, 674 hours, 20 minutes, or the month of October, 647 hours, a lot of hours. This resident was so extremely self-destructive that she totally blinded herself. She was not enrolled in any occupational therapy until early 1977. Once initiated there, her programming has apparently been quite successful. She's now able to be out of restraints for as much as four hours a day. Had this programming been initiated earlier, herself inflicted injuries, might have been avoided or at least lessened. Now, this one to me sounds a little nitpicking. I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna explain why. I mean, yeah, they can look at hindsight and be like, yeah, man, once they found this worked, you know, at least lessened. Now this one to me sounds a little nitpicking. I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna explain why. I mean, yeah, they can look at hindsight and be like,

yeah, man, once they found this work, you know, she didn't have to be restrained as much. Why would they do that earlier? Well, cause they didn't fucking know they would work. You know, she was incredibly violent to herself person who was severely mentally disabled. And we're trying to hurt herself all the time. And yeah, they fucking tied her up

cause they didn't know what else to do. Is that the staff's fault? Is it the staff's fault that somebody was born with disabilities so severe, they're prone to attacking themselves so viciously that they fucking blind themselves? That is so horrific. But I mean, seriously, life is not fair.

If someone is born with a strong desire to run out to the edge of a cliff and then throw themselves off of it, and your responsibility is to keep them from not doing that. And you do so by tying them up or maybe bolting the door something. Then there's like this huge portion of society that I feel like is gonna cry out in outrage, but how dare you? How dare you imprison that human being like an animal? Like an animal? You monster. And then you can be like, okay, all right, fuck it. All right, let them go. Let them run what they want. And then the person runs out the door and throws himself off a cliff.

And then the same people are gonna cry out again. What were you thinking letting them go? You should have tied him up for his own good. It does feel like, I feel bad for a lot of the staff at Penners, but they were just in a no-win situation. They were just short staffs forced to try and do their best to take care of a very hard to take care of population of people. The report goes on saying,

Seclusion rooms have been used to punish aggressive behavior. These are all examples of how dare they do this. This says, one 18-year-old individual spent six consecutive days in seclusion in nineteen seventy four for assaulting a down syndrome resident uh... again uh... weird citation of things being horrible weird example you know it's like how dare you put that young man in solitary for six whole days uh... motherfucker he just beat the shit out of somebody who has

down syndrome what we supposed to do telling me the firm voice to stop punching other people in the face of a bunch? Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, what did we say about punching people in the face hard and often? What are you supposed to do? It says the physical environment at Pennhurst is hazardous to the residents, both psychologically and physically.

There is often excrement in urine on ward floors and the living areas don't meet minimal professional standards for cleanliness outbreaks of pinworms and Infectious disease or common. Okay, this seems pretty hard to defend. I Gotta say this complaint seems to be very valid You know, that's that's about you gotta clean the floor. People should not have to live in a place covered in pinworm and fasted shit That seems That seems, that seems pretty fixable. But again, probably due to short staff, it says there is not adequate space

for the residents, the living areas do not provide privacy for those persons who would handle privacy. This does not seem to be, there's not seem to be adequate activity areas or program areas or even general activity areas within the general living area or even adequate activity program areas away from the home living area. Love how that leads us to speak. Yes, so severe overcrowding. Again, valid complaint. The environment at Pennhurst is not only not conducive

to learning new skills, but it is so poor that it contributes to losing skills already learned. For example, Pennhurst has a toilet training program. But one who has successfully completed the program may not be able to practice their newly learned skill and is therefore are likely to use it Yeah, that complaint seems pretty valid as well once you learn how to use a toilet You should be able to continue to have access to a toilet Not sure what the hell is going on keeping people from toilets

Again, probably severe overcrowding. That sounds very sad to me And they say most toilet areas do not have towels, soap or toilet paper. And the bathroom facilities are often filthy in an estate of disrepair, obnoxious odors and excessive noise permeate the atmosphere at Pennhurst. Such conditions are not conducive to habillitation to yeah, habillitation. Moreover, the noise level in the day rooms is often so high that many residents simply stop speaking. Yeah. okay.

No soap or toilet paper in the bathrooms on the reg. That is super fucked up. I feel like that problem is strongly linked to the shit covering the floor's situation. Little toilet paper, a little bit of soap might kinda knock out both problems. Mom Ridgeway would have lost her shit at Pennhurst over all the shit other people were losing.

So many filthy wings needing to be cleaned. Mama Ridgeway would have come down with carpal tunnel after just a few days, which is all the winged clean and she would have been doing. Man, no, that is terrible. I mean, I mean, we've all used to gross bathroom. Like, we've all been traveling and you've walked into, I've walked into a place a few times, even where I've really had to go where I'm like, I can't, now I all used to gross bathroom. Like, we've all been traveling and you've walked into, I've walked into a place a few times,

even where I've really had to go, I'm like, I can't, now I'm not going in there. I am not, I do not, that's how many no places dirty when you don't feel comfortable taking a shit in a place. And this bathroom just sounds like, basically like the worst a bathroom could be. Like, at this point, it's not really a bathroom. It's just a room, it's just an area.

It's just a physical location that you just shitted like an animal. That's terrible. Injuries to residents are by other residents are common, it says through self abuse. For example, on January 8th, 1975, oh, not just through self abuse. Check this out.

It says by January 8th, 1975, this is, oh. One individual bit off three quarters of the earlobe and part of the outer ear of another resident. Well, that second resident was asleep, which is, that sounds so horrific to me because I mean, either you're severely drugged up and I guess you don't feel it and you wake up with part of your ear being chewed off or you've been restrained, which I think is the more likely sad, sadly, more likely scenario, you do feel it. You're restrained. And you can just, there's somebody's face right next to your face and they're nibbling your ear off. That's some Stephen King shit about this same period. One resident pushed a second resident to the floor off a higher floor, resulting in the

death of the second resident. Such residents abuse continues in January 1977 alone says there was 833 minor and 25 major injuries, injuries reported. And that's, yes, that is clearly terrible. 25 major injuries in one month, very bad, clearly a staffing problem, need more staff, need more vigilant staff. A lot of bad decisions being made. In addition, there is staff abuse of residents.

In 1976, one resident was raped by a staff person. One resident was badly bruised when a staff person hit him with a set of keys. Another resident was thrown several feet across the room by a staff person. One resident was hit by a staff person with a shackle belt on each occasion. An investigation was conducted and the staff person responsible suspended and or terminated. I'm hoping in addition to be suspended and or terminated, the rape person was criminally prosecuted.

What the fuck? I'm hoping that just goes without saying, maybe that was brought up in a different segment of court testimony. To me, that is, you know, a little more than a workplace violation, just, you know, all right, Steve, I got the results of your six month review win and, uh, look, we're gonna start with the positive. We love the appunch. We love the dot all your eyes, love the across all your t's on your daily patient assessments. A lot of good qualities. However, uh, what we do not care for is the, uh, is a raping.

We don't like it. Uh, we really hope that you would stop raping after we suspended you last year. And now I'm afraid we're gonna have to let you go. It's, we're gonna have to fire you. It's just your terminated. It's too much raping. So Jesus, many of the restaurants, many of the residents have suffered physical deterioration, intellectual and behavioral regression

during their residency at Pennhurst. Terry Lee Halterman, the original plaintiff the action, was admitted to Pennhurst in 1966 when she was 12 years of age. And it says during her 11 years at Pennhurst, as a result of attacks and accidents, she has lost several teeth, suffered a fractured jaw, fractured fingers, had a fractured toe, numerous lacerations, cuts, scratches, and bites. Prior to her admission to Pennhurst, Terry Lee could say, data, mama, no, no, Baba, and Nana, she no longer speaks at all.

Fuck. So yes, I get the lawsuit completely now. This one seems exceptionally bad. That's a lot of fractures. That is a lot of fractures. That is a lot of fractures. Which they had some notes as to how she received some of them, she might not be able to communicate though, why that's a sad part of this.

If she can't communicate, she couldn't tell people what had actually happened to her. They just would see bite marks on her body or whatever, or fractured bones and know that something had happened to her. As a result of either violence to herself or probably more likely violence from others. So, you know, it's a God, it's like, was anybody paying attention, what was going on there?

I mean, they were actually, but again, if there's not enough staff to handle all this overcrowding, what can you do? They need more funding, they need more staff. It says, Plano for Robert Hight, born in 1965, was admitted at Pennhurst in September 1974, placed on a war with 45 other residents. His parents visited him two and two and one half weeks

after his admission and found that already he was badly bruised. His mouth was cut. He was heavily drugged and didn't recognize his mother. On this visit, the heights observed 25 residents walking the ward naked, others partially dressed during the short period of time. Robert had lost skills that he had possessed prior to his admission and the heights promptly removed Robert from the institution, Mrs. Hyde comedy

that she would not leave a dog in conditions like that. Flack. Yeah, this complaint seems pretty bad too. A lot of bad stuff happened. This is terrible. It says approximately 21 of the 45 living units at Panhurst are locked to prevent individuals from leaving their living units. Those individuals over the age of 18, who have been quote unquote voluntarily admitted

to Pennhurst are theoretically free to leave the institution at any time. Those admitted on the petition of their parents are informed by their case worker. When they reach the age of 18, they don't have to remain at Pennhurst. If the residents state that they wish to leave the institution and the staff determines that there is no place

for them in the community or believes that the individuals are not ready to go into the community, the staff can petition the court to have the individuals committed to the institution by the court. Furthermore, those residents who either do not understand their alternatives or physically unable to indicate they wish to leave Panhurst will be deemed to have consented to their continued placement at the institution. Thus, the notion of volunteering us and connection with admission, as well as in connection with the right to leave Panhears is an illusory concept. A few of any residents now have noted they have at the time of their admission, any adequate alternative to their institutionalization

as a practical matter. Panhears was and is their only alternative. Nearly all the parents of Panhears residents who testified stated that they placed their children in Penners only as a last resort and had there been community facilities or aid programs their children would not have been placed at Penners. So this complaint seems aimed more at society in general than it was at Penners. And I'm going to put a pin in that thought and we're going to come back to that after the timeline. It's about to wrap up here on October 4, 1975, the federal developmental disabilities assistance and Bill of Rights Act is signed into law. It establishes finally a system for protection and advocacy organizations in each state, enumerates certain rights for people

with intellectual disabilities, a major step in the right direction for the advancement of the rights of disabled. On November 29, 1975, the federal education for all handicapped children act assigned into law. From April 1st, 1977, through June 1st, 1977, Holderman versus Penhurst has tried the honorable Raymond J. Broderick rules in favor of the residents, declaring the forced institutionalized, forced institutionalization of people with disabilities is unconstitutional. The district court determined that Penhurthers provided such a dangerous, miserable environment for its residents that many of them actually suffered physical deterioration and intellectual

regression during their stay in the institution. And then there was a panoramic longitudinal study conducted between 1979-1975, found that panoramic residents who moved to the community would be better off in every way that we know how to measure. Before the relocation of residents, 60% of families of Panhurst residents opposed the residents leaving Panhurst. Six months after relocation, more than 80% of the same families came to agree that relocation had been the right decision. June 18, 1982, the US Supreme Court rules in the case of Romeo versus Youngberg that the

Constitution imparts a right to minimally adequate treatment for people involuntarily committed to state institutions. The court defines rights of such involuntarily committed persons to a right to be free from unreasonably bodily restraints and to a reasonably safe environment and whatever minimal training might be required to protect those interests. Romeo versus Youngberg was filed by the mother of an individual who received serious injuries after his commitment to Pennhurst. The defendants had prevailed a trial, but the trial results were overturned by the Third Circuit Court, which ordered a new trial to be held. In that case, was settled before another trial was scheduled.

And then in 1984, the final settlement agreement between the Halderman versus Pennhurst parties provides for the closure of Pennhurst. And then a portion of Pennhurst property is repurposed as a residential home for Pennsylvania veterans in 86. And then on December 9th, 1977, the Pennhurst State School in the hospital is officially completely and totally shut down forever. And then October, 2010, years later to the shock, it is May of many, especially those in the disability community, the now privately owned penhurst, you know, it's kind of like it's

to be called in a state now, is turned into a Halloween attraction. Randy Bates, the Bates Motel Halloween attraction owner, turns penhurst historic lower campus into a commercial haunted kind of insane asylum type attraction. And with that, we will leave today's time suck timeline. Good job, soldier. You've made it back. Barely. BANG!

So, you know, this suck was not what I expected. First off, I'll be honest, I thought Pennhurst wasn't insane asylum. I had no idea it was a home for the intellectually disabled, and I was surprised by my reaction to a lot of the material. You know, I definitely didn't have a fuck those people at Pennhurst for not taking better care of the patients a lot of time. And Baldini didn't either.

You know, he realized the problem was a lot bigger than that. You know, Pennhurst didn't fail because of the staff. It failed because of society. It was never built to succeed. You know. It wasn't built for the right reasons, wasn't given a proper staff. They didn't put enough money into it. And why? Because why did all this happen?

Well, because a lot of families felt that they had family members who were too hard to take care of themselves. So are those families that falled as much as Penderist was for the treatment of the patients? No, I don't think so. Pairst was supposed to be able to take care of the patients, but it didn't, and why didn't it again,

because well, because it didn't have proper funding, and why didn't have proper funding, but because not enough tax money was allocated to funding Pairst, and why wasn't enough money allocated? Well, because the care of the intellectually disabled was not, and is not, frankly, a cultural priority. It's gotten better since 1968,

since Baldini's report, you know, a report aired interestingly, the same year that the Special Olympics were founded by Unice Kennedy Schriver, the sister of JFK, mother of Maria Schriver. Penders have been closed for years now, but are things better for the intellectually disabled today? I would think overall, but in many ways,

not, for a lot of people, widespread abuse does continue. I came across in November 21st, 2016 article in the Chicago Tribune called Suffering and Secret. Illinois hides abuse and neglect of adults with disabilities. The article says the house had no address. The dead man had no name. Illinois officials blacked out those details from their investigator report. Nobody else was supposed to learn the man's identity or the location of the state funded facility where his body was found. The investigation was closed as it began with no public disclosure and the report was filed away one of thousands that portray a hidden world of misery and harm.

And again, this is 2016. No one would know that Thomas Powers died at 3,300 Essington Road in unincorporated Joliette in a group home managed for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Or that his caregivers forced a 50-year-old man with the intellect of a small child to sleep on a soiled mattress on the floor in a room used for storage. Or that the front door bore a building inspection sticker that warranted not approved for occupancy. Not even Powers grieving family knew the state had looked into his death and found evidence of neglect.

As Illinois steers thousands of low income adults with disabilities into private group homes, a Tribune investigation found powers was but one of many casualties in a bot strategy to save money and give some of the states poorest and most vulnerable residents a better life. The first comprehensive account of mistreatment in science Illinois, Illinois's tax payer funded group homes in their day programs, the Tribune uncovered a system where caregivers often failed to provide basic care while regulators cloaked harm and death with secrecy and silence. The Tribune identified 1,311 cases of documented harm since July 2011. Hundreds more cases than publicly reported by the Illinois Department of Human Services. Confronted with those finding human services,

officials retracted five years of erroneous reports and said the department launched reforms to ensure accurate reporting. So yeah, that doesn't sound better than Pennhurst at all. Should still be in kind of hidden. Bad things still happening. Earlier this year, 2018, NPR reported that people with intellectual disabilities are victims of some of the highest rates of sexual assault in the nation. NPR found previously undisclosed government numbers. And again, it's a sad theme here, the Baltic thing where, you know, undisclosed government

numbers showing that people with intellectual disabilities are assaulted. It's seven times the rate of people without those disabilities, seven times the rate of assault. Jessica Oppenheim of the Ark of New Jersey and Advocacy Group says, people with intellectual disabilities live an isolated life and it makes them more likely to be victimized. Let's face it, she adds,

offenders are going to look for an easier target and someone who doesn't feel they have the right to say anything, someone who may not understand what their rights are, someone who's not comfortable or maybe is even afraid to say anything makes for an easier target. So how do we fix things? Well, the American Psychological Association has a lot of thought about

this problem or has thought a lot about this problem. It has some insights regarding how to try and fix it. They say the APA has recognized the urgent need for more data. The association makes a number of recommendations including the creation of a national strategy to collect data, more investment in research, greater development of evidence-based prevention and intervention methods. While more research is sorely needed, psychologists can ignore the problem until more data rolls in. All mental health professionals should assess for abuse. People with intellectual disabilities, this means asking clients, patients, about types of views that aren't always obvious. When people with disabilities are in abusive situations,

psychologists have to consider their unique needs as they help them develop safety plans and escape plans. Many domestic violence shelters, for instance, aren't accessible to someone with a wheelchair, someone with certain medical needs. People in shelters might not know sign language or be able to accommodate a person with visual impairments. These barriers can make it difficult for people with various disabilities to flee an abusive

situation. Psychologists can also help by taking a proactive approach to help clients avoid abusive situations. For example, they can help parents have disabled children, seek support and learn coping strategies to manage their frustrations so that the child doesn't end up in a potentially dangerous situation. In addition, psychologists can help people with disabilities learn to advocate for themselves and find ways to communicate when something's wrong. Meanwhile, disability advocates say the fields of healthcare, social work and psychology should do more to teach trainees about disability issues, including intellectual disabilities, raise awareness of the risk of violence towards this population.

One place to start is to open the doors to people who walk in those shoes. Psychology needs to become a lot more welcoming of people with disabilities. So, you know, it sounds like what we need to do is not send them away and pretend they don't exist. They need proper treatment. We need to find out what that treatment is. You know, find out how to take care of them better and better as we go forward. You know, but then there's this other problem of who is gonna cover that. You know, I think it's problem.

Again, I think of people who like complain about their school system being shitty. But then this is one of probably many examples like he used, but then when a tax levy is proposed to increase their taxes to pay for more teachers and better conditions at the school system that they're complaining about, they voted down. You know, just fucking ridiculous.

You know, without that kind of stuff, happens all the time. Like, if we want this issue fixed, we're going to have to throw some money at it. We're going to have to pay for proper care for the less fortunate. You know, unlike when Panhurst was founded, you know, education exists now for how to care for the intellectual disabled. Now we know how to do it, but that doesn't mean we are doing it. You know, or at least we know a lot, you know, how to do it a lot better. We know how to care for epileptics, the deaf to blind, the paralyzed,

the people with all kinds of disabilities used to be sent to penhers, replaces like penhers. I think, you know, for their safety and health and to prevent some additional tragedy, I do think maybe, just maybe, you maybe. We can talk about maybe some sterilization happening. I know, I know, I know, I know, it's not a fucking popular one. I'm not gonna get a lot of support in that front. I've had that conversation many times

over the course of my adult life, and pretty consistently, my thoughts are met with looks of disgust and horror. It's fine. So what else can we do? You know, we can start caring about you than intellectually disabled, and we can volunteer our time or money

to help those who need a little more help than the rest of us. I looked into some charities that help people with intellectual disabilities, the one that seemed the coolest to me that I found doing a little bit of research that is called Advancing Opportunities. Advancing Opportunities has a mission to drive independent living for individuals with disabilities. All of their services are person centered. One especially unique service lends free assistive technology to adults to require some help

with tasks like college assignments, or recovering from memory loss. Yet another incredible resource for adults with disabilities is their employment program that provides resume building and training on new tasks, advanced opportunities, drives to be one agency for all disabilities, and they do other things beyond that with people with more severe intellectual disabilities. Link in the episode description if you want to learn more about them or donate, it's adv.pps.org. And I guess nothing we can do is not look down on them.

And in this regard, compared to when I was a kid, things do seem to be changing a lot for the better. Society does seem to be moving in a good direction. And you know, part of me saying that comes from the research I did for this week's idiots of the internet where I actually found some inspiration. Let's check it out. It is an idiot with that. ABC has a hidden camera show that I've never watched but I watched a lot of close of it called What Would You Do?

If you haven't seen it, they create socially uncomfortable situations out in public to see how strangers will react. They might have an actor or actress say something like overtly racist or threatened domestic violence or steal something to see if anyone around notices and intervenes. And just as past May they posted a video of a very sweet, very friendly, intellectually disabled man with Down syndrome named Peter. And Peter is trying to order food, a little restaurant. When an actor starts harassing him, telling him he's holding everybody up, asking if he

can order first before this guy, mocking him, saying he's too slow to be ordering. He can't probably read anyway, why is he looking at the menu, referring to him saying he's too slow, you know, to be ordering. Saying he, you know, he can't probably read anyway. Why is he looking at the menu, referring to him loudly, that he is quote retarded, that he shouldn't be left out in public alone, instead of lots of horrible shit. And time after time in this video, strangers come to Peter's defense and essentially tell this guy to get out of the restaurant and go fuck himself. It's beautiful. It's beautiful.

But I was afraid still to look in the comments section. I expected a troll fest in the comment thread under this video that has almost five million views since May 24th. I just think about my own childhood and all the terms that were thrown around. And the horrible things would be said about people with intellectual disabilities.

And I expected those things to pop up in the comment thread and I was wrong. Amazing Thomas posts. I don't give a crap that that guy's an actor. I shoot him in the side of his head. Savannah, Jala post love you guys and she gets over 700 thumbs up and then tons of love you to replies. John Allen post, I want that down syndrome guys. My friend he is so cute.

Chloe Hughes posts. I feel bad for Peter, even if he is an actor because he must go through that all the time in real life, frowny face. I had to scroll down through hundreds and hundreds of comments before I found anything that even hinted slightly negative. I think that's the first time that's ever happened on any of these sucks where I've done that. Uh, eventually, of course, you know, you get him, you get a video with this many views, you're gonna have a couple of assholes, but it took me forever to find the first one. And it wasn't as harsh as I expected to be, honestly. I messed up, but if, you know, Roman Reigns 619 post, Peter has screwed up teeth. That's what he posts.

And I will say that Roman Reigns has a cartoon drawing of some WWE dude as his avatar. So I'm guessing he's about 10 years old. And immediately the first replies to his post are screw you. And you're just like the guy who's insulting Peter, screw you. And since they're saying screw instead of fuck, I feel like it's other little kids putting Roman in his place. I like it. He'll Nimrod and

Shut the fuck up Roman reigns. You'll shale a lassel tons more nice comments follow so many more nice comments You have to go down like another hundred or so more before you find a user who stole my socks who post never understood Why people with down syndrome have the worst haircuts Which you know is is you know mildly not cool. And then Steven Jobs, obvious troll replies because they're too stupid to get a good one. And then the other users fucking tear him apart immediately.

All replies, but just so angry towards him. None more so than Kanasheeniko, who posts, quote, "'Steven Jobs, fuck you, caucnic balls, bitch ass, whore retardant, shit head fucking motherfucker, all caps." Okay, probably you, Cock Dick ballers, bitch ass, whore retarded shithead, fucking mother fucker, all caps. Okay. Probably should have left out the word retarded in that rant and in all other rants.

Uh, Kanashi, but I do support your intent. Uh, I do support the rest of the vocab you use wholeheartedly. Then hundreds and hundreds of other super kind comments on a row. Uh, one of my favorites is user silver dollar who posts, Peter is not retarded or mentally challenged or any of that, he's a customer to restaurant, trying to enjoy meal. How beautiful is that, if you really think about it? Why do we have to define him by his intellectual ability?

Why can't he just be a fucking dude, want in the sandwich? He just said, dude, trying to get some taters in some gravy, much like myself. A guy perusing, a diner menu hoping to find That chicken fried steak breakfast is still being served after noon hoping to find that the hot turkey sandwich platter Does in fact have cranberry sauce with it and it has real potatoes not not instant You know, maybe he's a guy hoping to see a little Milo font there.

Little Milo with some green beans. Maybe French style. You know, I'm very, very all too familiar with downer menus. But yeah, we had exactly silver dollars. He's just another meat sack. Just like the rest of us, no one's perfect. And then user Payton K sums out how I feel

about the video in general, just posting, this makes me feel good. So thank you, internet for making me feel good, and not being full of idiots for once. Well, thank you, Space, I just for voting in this topic on the app and the website. I would have never picked it. I don't think I would have ever heard of it. Now glad I know about Pairst, and I'm glad I know because it's made me reflect a lot

on this issue. You know, caring for the intellectually disabled was is probably always will be a very complex issue. So many different situations, you know, there's kids, for example, with high function autism who are much, much, much more self-reliant than other kids with extremely low IQs who also need a tummy care. They can be more self-reliant than kids who are quote unquote normal, you know. And then there's this, you know, such a wide variety of people with such a wide variety of needs, you know, for two years in Spokane back in 2006, 2007, I lived next door to a

couple that had three boys. There's a couple in their, in their 40s and they had three kids all in their teens. Two of the sons perfectly healthy. I still see one at shows, standup shows in the area from time to time. He's a grown ass man now. He's not working the drive through with the Spokane Valley dairy queen anymore. But the third sun was and is severely disabled. I can't speak, can't walk, severely physically deformed, sits in a specialized motorized wheelchair of sorts has to have someone else move the chair around for him.

Not sure how aware he is of his surroundings. He didn't seem when I would be over there to be aware at all. Can't control his bodily functions. Can't really do anything at all for himself. Can't communicate on almost any level. His mother, this angel of a human being, went back to school, got a nursing degree specific to nursing his type of disability. I can't remember the syndrome or whatever condition you had. I remember it was rare, but she did that so she can become a full-time nurse.

That's what she was now. She didn't seem to be able to spend much time with her other two kids because her full-time seven days a week around the clock job was taking care of the one one child. And that would be her job until either he died or she died. And you could think, well, yeah, yeah, she's his mom. That's what you do. That's what you're supposed to do. But would you do that?

Would you throw away any chance at a career? Would you throw away the ability to ever be present for anyone other than this one person and any type of consistent fashion in order to constantly take care of this person for the rest of their life or the rest of yours. Some person who may not even be able to cognitively understand that you're their parent. Think about how that would change your life. You know, what if that, what if that became your life until you died of old age? Could you do it? You know, if you, if you, you know, if you couldn't, should the state be responsible for taking care of that human being?

If so, are you willing to pay more taxes to have that being option? Are you willing to advocate that more of your taxes should be allotted for that type of care so that is an option? You know, and if that becomes the case, you know, then what gets less funding because that's getting more. It's a fucking tough issue. That's why I didn't come, I think to a very judgy place against the people at Pennhurst, it's like, what are we supposed to do?

Is this society with the members who can't take care of themselves? Is this issue solvable? Is it unsolvable on some level? You know, what do we do? Well, we start with treating them in a handicap, and people with intellectual disabilities with dignity and respect, we don't take advantage of them.

We can check on them. We can try to make sure that others aren't taking advantage of them. And I guess we can vote for politicians who we believe are gonna pass more reforms and gonna, are gonna a lot more money to their care and just agree that, you know, we're gonna have to pay for it

because they can't pay for it themselves. I don't know, curious what you're gonna write in about this one. I really am. And that's kind of, I'll just be continuing to babble if I go beyond that. So let's get to top five takeaways. Time, suck, top five takeaways. Time suck. Top five takeaway. Number one in 1968, local Philadelphia reported Bill Baldeni to the five part investigative expose on Pennhurst called

suffer the little children. And he lit the fire on a national discussion about how to care for the intellectually disabled and burns to this day. Number two Pennhurst designed to remove people from society with mental defects as part of America's early 20th century eugenics movement. Yep. America had eugenics movement. Again, Penhurst chief physician would quote Henry H. Goddard, that leading eugenicist, saying every feeble-minded person is a potential criminal. That happened.

Number three, in 1977, US district judge Raymond J. Brotorick ruled that the conditions at Pennhurst State School violated patients' constitutional rights. The lawsuit led to this ruling was filed May 30, 1974 by Philadelphia Attorney David Furliger, representing the Patients of the Pennhurst State School, and this lawsuit led to institution closing his doors for good in 1997. Number four, the intellectually disabled are still suffering. They're assaulted seven times national average. Wide spread abuse continues at many institutions designed to theoretically

house and protect them. What do we do about this? Well, we keep thinking about it. We keep talking about it. We keep spreading the word for others to do the same. Number five, new info. Some of the grounds at Pennhurst now offer paranormal tours. In addition to the, the, the haunted house thing I said up to earlier, the company that

operates the haunted house offers a number of other tourist attractions, the about section of their website states, Pennhurst, the legendary haunted hospital complex has opened his doors after being abandoned for 25 years. Pennhurst, haunted asylum is Pennsylvania's scariest destination, a haunted house. The fear is real at Pennhurst. So is Pennsylvania's scariest destination, a haunted house. The fear is real at Pennhurst. So is this exploiting the intellectually disabled and is it, is it really haunted? Uh, I wouldn't want to spend a night there and find out. I feel like sadly, a lot of very tragic deaths have occurred there and a place is going

to be haunted. It's probably going to be wonderful. Time, suck. Tough, five take away. All right, Penn Hurst has been sucked. They'll change a pace this week's suck. I like it. A lot of food for thought this week.

You know, God, what do we do with this society to realistically improve the lives of the intellectuals? You're disabled. Big thanks to the time suck team, Harmony Velocamp, Jesse Dobner, Reverend Dr. Joe Paisley. Thank you to Alex Dugan, the Biddelixer team, Danger Brain, Eric Radiker, Queen of the Suck, Lindsay Cummins. Thanks to OG Bangles, bangles.

OG Bojangles, Bojangles. Research intern Heather Rylander for, again, knocking this shit out of the park. And next week, on Monday, we head to the Roman Empire. Specifically, we look at Spartacus. I'm very excited for this one, man. I've always been fasting with Spartacus. We examined Rome's famous infamous, I guess, gladiatorial combat. Spartacus was a famous gladiator who led to a let a famous uprising against the Roman Republic in the first century BCE. Well, what was life

like for Spartacus and other gladiars at that time? What was life like in Rome? How big was a sword? Did you have two swords? Did you have a, uh, mace thingy? Did you have a shield? Did you not have a shield? Did you fight with lions? Did both jangles fight as a gladiator as well? How did those dudes train and win their freedom?

Did they body slam people sometimes? Did they fucking fight on boats? I don't know, there's a lot of things I want to find out. I'm only looking forward to getting into all these things, gladiator. Oh, you not entertained. May have to watch that Russell Crowe movie again. May have to watch some old episodes

that old star series called Spartacus again. Man, that season one of that show is incredible. Another hidden gem, I think. Spartacus season one, it was on stars like fucking eight years ago or something, incredible show. Then the poor lead actor died of, I believe it was Hodgkins. He died of cancer before they could do season two, which was really kind of jarring to me because he was so physically fit, not to physically fit people can't die, but he was young, ripped, and then just gone.

So that can crazy. Anyway, right now, let's get out of, let's get out of sparkus. Let's get to some time-soaker updates. Updates, get your time-soaker updates. First up is a Pancho via update from Time-soaker, Liz Espino. I probably fucked up your name now, Liz, even though you're calling me out on a Spanish pronunciation thing a little bit. Espino, I think it's Spino. Liz Espino, listen in an email with a subject, it's Miguel, Hidalgo, Hidalgo, excuse me, not Manuel.

Ah, I must have, clearly I messed up there. I thought I knew it was cool. Okay, anyway, she says, Hola, Cuarrito, Maestro, Mamelón. Hello, dear master sucker. The suckest of the mall, my name is Liz, and while I live in Kansas, my motherland is Mexico. And she says, I was able to find out how much pesos translates

to current pesos by 2012. So at least, and it's equivalent in US dollars and it's equivalent in US dollars. Excuse me. I found 10,000 old pesos equals 396,747. No, no, no, no, wait, 396 million, 747, 126 current pace was holy shit, which equals 20,670,128 dollars. The site used is, uh, bah, baheko.com, Quanto.cfm sites in Spanish keep in mind I calculated the equivalent of a peso 1919 to 192 in 2002 use the current exchange rate leave the room for error You know, so it that's a lot of money which does prove that poncho's capture was worth a fuck ton of money as I said Well, thank you, Liz. I love that update. I love that that's out there Yeah, no wonder I couldn't find it. I wasn't googling in Spanish. I appreciate it

Also, these these updates will not reflect Friday's toy box episode, because I had to record this episode before that episode aired. Another poncho v update, this time from Super Sucker Victor El Camino Sanchez. Says, master sucker, I just listened to your poncho v as suck. And I want to take the time to say thank you. I am an immigrant from Mexico. And after 26 years, I just became a legal permanent resident in the United States. Ever since I was a small child, I have only ever heard Mexicans describe it a negative and dehumanizing way going back to

Proposition 177 in California, Google it, listing to one of my favorite comedians do an in depth and hilarious breakdown of life and times of one of Mexico's most legendary and revered figures, warms what is left of my cold black heart. I love that addition. I could not stop laughing during the Mexican Putin, Juju. Thank you for always being a thoughtful and your approach for being curious. I call black heart. I love that addition. I could not stop laughing. You're in the Mexican putty in juju. Thank you for always being a thoughtful

in your approach for being curious. Most importantly, thank you for being so goddamn funny. Keep on sucking sincerely. Victor El Camino Sanchez. Thank you, Victor. Yes. Paco Iguanita.

Muy poco tambien, deal, putty. Jels, you having a cool car by the way, if you do have a Camino. Maybe that is, I guess that could be, nothing to do with cars, you know, that word. But if you do, I'm Jellis, maybe think of a Camino, maybe think of an old Camino, maybe think about how I want to get a little bit of a pickup truck, maybe like a 1960,

4-F 100, step side, lots of chrome, cherry that motherfucker out. Oh, anyway, I'm probably sleep deprived right now. Yeah, man, I'm glad you liked the episode. I have, honestly, the gym, you know, I always had a lot of respect for a Mexican culture, especially living in LA for a long time. You know, it is funny to me where, like, as you say,

you know, these knocks on a Mexican being described in a negative way, you know, one way I heard it as a kid was always lazy. This, this, this, you know, that horrible adjective used to describe makes it like lazy Mexicans. I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? Drives you any agricultural area? Who's out there bustin' their fucking backs?

Pickin' crops, plantin' seeds? Is, is a bunch of, uh, white dudes? A bunch of white ladies? Fuck no, it's not. Which is one thing that's always got to be fired up about immigration. People are like, oh, taking our jobs. Okay, but yeah, but some of the jobs, why aren't you fucking doing them?

Why aren't you applying? You want to get out there? You want to get out there and bust your ass? Oh, you don't. You want to be in Starbucks with air conditioning. I get it, but shut the fuck up. Okay, one more poncho update from Time Sucker, a military listener, Jacob Jones.

Jacob, thank you for your service. Jacob writes, dear Lord Suck Master, the third S Quire. First time, Master, longtime sucker. I stumbled upon your podcast when driving from Missouri to North Carolina, I got hooked immediately. Anyway, I just listened to the Pontchal via podcast. You did an awesome job getting the info to us and such a funny way, man. I didn't know shit about Pontchal, except for he pissed off the US at one point.

It was hunted down by General John Jay Pershing. So I heard you mentioned his nickname Blackjack. That took me back to when I was in ROTC at Mizzou. And I would teach a class on General Persians life. And he earned his nickname derived from a negative connotation, a very negative, given to him by the cadets at West Point, where he was a drill and ceremony instructor. The cadets didn't like him, due to his high standards. And assholes being assholes, the cadets would call him N-bomb Jack, referencing his time with the 10th cavalry in all black unit. The original nickname obviously did not stick

for good reason and evolved into black Jack. Wow, holy shit. I, until you said this, I thought I had something to do with the playing cards, like poker. You know, playing like 21. I guess that poker, you know what I mean? Pretty shitty history, but history nonetheless. Hope you found that tidbit of info to be interesting

and thanks to the time suck. I did find it interesting and you welcome, yes. I listen to it on my way to work every morning and it wakes me the fuck up when I drive to post. Love your stand up and the podcast. So take it easy, master sucker, respectfully Jake. Man, well thank you, Jake. Yeah, man, that's a dark twist.

I didn't see coming. That's, that's what a, what a different time. They were just openly, openly call him, you know, and, um, Jack Jesus Christ. One last one, one last one today from suckhead and wonderful meat sack, Troy, uh, Manjillo. He says, uh, what's a big deal? What's this big deal?

Why, why, why you, why you start me when I stalked off the shame, huh? I bother no one. It's, uh you, why you start me when I suck soft shame, car, I bother no one. It's a, it's relaxing toward me. I added a little bit there. He says, what's big deal? Hail Nimrod for delivering us from the temptations of idiocy, praiseable jangles and his one eye three-legged gloriousness. Damn loose of fena with their widely charmed hailed order, the suck aka Dan, the mother of suck and profit, curious, Covins aka master of all the sucks aka insert funny caption here master Master of all the sucks, aka Insert Funny Caption, here Master of Dinko.

I love the fucking reposterous amount of nicknames. I love it when you go through all of your aliases. He says, I write to you because I want to thank you for all the knowledge suckin' you have provided. I just recently became a space, it's sometimes very proud of. Coal to the curious, it's an amazing community, you're proud to be part of it.

I love listening to suck term, a dishwasher job, you sweet, oh, your sweet, sweet voice has been blessed. I was blessed by Nimrod's ball sack. Cracks me up, especially when you slip seamlessly into one of your characters. Oh, thanks, but I'm trying. I feel like I've been a little light on characters lately.

I gotta get them back in there a little heavier. Next, few episodes. Ever since I moved up to a small town here in New York from the big apple, it's, thanks have been rough to try to make ends meet. I'll spare you the details, but upon discovering your podcast, your Pandora, my life has gotten better. When you pull out the triple limit, it turns been rough to try to make ends meet. I'll spare you the details, but upon discovering your podcast, your Pandora, my life has gotten better.

When you pull out the triple M, it turns over any day into sunshine and seconds. Oh, why, I did do that today, right? I throw in a little... Tuna, tuna, tuna, tuna, tuna, tuna, tuna, tuna. Little hum and Michael Mulder fucking McDonald's just happened there. He's got triple M in a hum and method. Okay, anyway, he says, I made the move to pursue a business venture.

I started with my best friend at 27 years. That's awesome. We started a toy company called the Ursa Nots. That's cool. We've been trying to get out the ground. We have a social media presence. But, you know, due to life is taking a back seat. I hear that, man, which we are not proud of.

I have been in a downward spiral of depression, constantly feeling like all I ever do is fail, combined with several dating disasters. All I can feel is emptiness. I have been in a downward spiral of depression, constantly feeling like all I ever do is fail, combined with several dating disasters. All I can feel was emptiness. I hated life itself. One day I had Pandora on, heard your advert for Time Suck, listened to the gold state killer,

and you almost fooled me with your fake story about the West End rapist. I think that's what you called him and I was hooked. I don't even remember what the hell I called him. I'd say so much crazy shun here. I know this is getting a bit long in the tooth and I apologize for that, but I want to, once you know you become one of my heroes never lose your absurd absurdness

Nor your curiosity the best advice I was given was when I was finishing high school and my bio teacher said to me It doesn't matter what you choose to do in life, but be a learned man and read everything Never let your knowledge stagnate. Oh man. That is so fucking true. I think so man anyway. I love you stand up Especially spoons. Yeah, here comes the spoons, motherfucker. Thank you for being a curious motherfucker. Keep the suck going. And for the love of Nimrod, can you do a gig up here in Hudson Valley?

Man, I'm curious, cult member for Life Troy. Oh, man, well, I don't know. I don't know if I, hopefully the Hudson Valley where I hope that can do gigs where people want me to go because hopefully the suck keeps spreading and I can have a big enough audience to do gigs all over the fucking place. And sorry, the life has been a little hard, but I like your attitude, like your outlook.

And man, you know, all you can do, all you can do is just keep pushing, just keep grinding, you know, fine, you know, follow that passion, don't give up, you know, if you hit a wall, you know, just stand back, you know, let it go for a day or two, think about how you can get around it, think about how you can try to bust through, try something else, and then that's it, and then just never stop, just never stop doing that, you know, it's no guarantee you're gonna succeed, but stopping to do that is a guarantee that you will fail. For sure, love you buddy, love you guys, for sending that stuff in. Uh, thank you. Thanks, time suckers. I need a net. We all did.

That's all for today, time suckers. Have a great week. Take care of each other. Be extra kind to somebody who maybe, uh, has a little heavier load than you do to carry through life. You keep on sucking. Oh, suckin'.