From Asylum to Prison: Deinstitutionalization and the Rise of Mass Incarceration after 1945 (Justice, Power, and Politics)

To many, asylums are a relic of a bygone era. State governments took steps between 1950 and 1990 to minimize the involuntary confinement of people in psychiatric hospitals, and many mental health facilities closed down. Yet, as Anne Parsons reveals, the asylum did not die during deinstitutionalization. Instead, it returned in the modern prison industrial complex as the government shifted to a more punitive, institutional approach to social deviance. Focusing on Pennsylvania, the state that ran one of the largest mental health systems in the country, Parsons tracks how the lack of community-based services, a fear-based politics around mental illness, and the economics of institutions meant that closing mental hospitals fed a cycle of incarceration that became an epidemic. This groundbreaking book recasts the political narrative of the late twentieth century, as Parsons charts how the politics of mass incarceration shaped the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric hospitals and mental health policy making. In doing so, she offers critical insight into how the prison took the place of the asylum in crucial ways, shaping the rise of the prison industrial complex. Prisons And Asylums Developed In Parallel In The United States As Institutions Dedicated To The Quarantine, Detention, And Punishment Of The Socially Marginal. A Widely Accepted Popular Narrative Holds That Deinstitutionalization From The 1950s To The 1990s Diminished The Role Of Asylums In America. Yet, As Anne E. Parsons Reveals, The Asylum Did Not Die--in Fact, Many Of Its Structures Have Been Transformed Into Prisons, Just As Prisons Have Shifted To Locking Up Those Who In An Earlier Era Would Have Been Sent To An Asylum-- Mental Hospitals And The Carceral State -- Unlocking The Doors -- Flying The Cuckoo's Nest -- Custodialism Reborn -- Cruel Choices. Anne E. Parsons. Includes Bibliographical References (pages [167]-208) And Index. "Prisons and asylums developed in parallel in the United States as institutions dedicated to the quarantine, detention, and punishment of the socially marginal. A widely accepted popular narrative holds that deinstitutionalization from the 1950s to the 1990s diminished the role of asylums in America. Yet, as Anne E. Parsons reveals, the asylum did not die--in fact, many of its structures have been transformed into prisons, just as prisons have shifted to locking up those who in an earlier era would have been sent to an asylum"-- Provided by publisher Recasts the political narrative of the late twentieth century, as Anne Parsons charts how the politics of mass incarceration shaped the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric hospitals and mental health policy making. In doing so, she offers insight into how the prison took the place of the asylum, shaping the rise of the prison industrial complex.