“In order to truly fix our broken approach to mental illness, there needs to be a change in attitude: one that goes from seeing people as inherently dangerous to treating them as human beings in need of help.”

An Essay by Ian H.

Often, the successes and failures of one social movement has much to teach us about what we should and should not do in other, perhaps seemingly unrelated, campaigns. One such case is that of the psychiatric deinstitutionalization movement and the prison abolition movement. For some context, deinstitutionalization is/was the emptying of long-term stay mental health hospitals and institutions that began in the 1950s (Roth). The prison abolition movement refers to the campaign to close prisons, based on the belief that incarceration is never justified and that those currently imprisoned are generally the victims of larger societal forces like racism and poverty; it is also important to note that most abolitionists, while seeking alternatives to imprisonment, advocate for a gradual decarceration in tandem with other large-scale societal changes, not the immediate release of all prisoners (Smith). These two movements have many interesting similarities which, when examined, can lead to mutual learning, especially by current abolitionists from the deinstitutionalization movement. Through examining the similar origins and present conditions of psychiatric institutions and prisons, we can apply the lessons learned from the deinstitutionalization movement to the prison abolition movement.

Before diving into lessons learned, let us begin by exploring the past and current parallels between these two movements. To start historically, with an oft cited point by abolitionists, the first prisons were a reform effort, an attempt to make punishment more humane and rehabilitation-focused (Miller). The fascinating comparison here is that psychiatric institutions were as well (Roth). Prison abolitionists often point out this fact about prisons in arguing that mere reform doesn’t work, so this parallel with another reform movement that ended with its own kind of abolition is worth noting. To move to more recent times, one of the often mentioned (though perhaps exaggerated) consequences of deinstitutionalization is the flow of some severely mentally ill people into prisons (Roth). This a pretty clear connection between the two movements, which I think can be summarized by this quote in the article “The Truth about Deinstitutionalization” published in The Atlantic: “In order to truly fix our broken approach to mental illness, there needs to be a change in attitude: one that goes from seeing people as inherently dangerous to treating them as human beings in need of help.” This beautiful idea absolutely begs to be applied to all people who are incarcerated, whether they have a mental illness or have been driven to crime for reasons completely unrelated to traditional mental health problems. The issues of psychiatric institutionalization and punishment-based imprisonment are deeply intertwined, and, thus, so are their corresponding abolitionist movements.  

Now that we have seen how connected these two movements are, we are pushed towards examining what we can learn from this connection. Much has been written about the shortcomings of the real-life deinstitutionalization process, and, perhaps more importantly, how we can improve upon what has been done thus far. Some of these writings on deinstitutionalization deserve to be read through a broader abolitionist lens and used as supplementary advice for prison abolitionists seeking to find alternatives, as well as entry ideas for those new to the movement seeking help imagining alternatives. An article in Psychiatry Online by Lamb and Bachrach lays out several ways the deinstitutionalization movement can improve outcomes, which can very easily be applied to post-prison abolition strategies. Practical steps include using a diversity of solutions, providing continuity of care, and deploying case workers who can provide individualized care. At least in the early days of our movement towards abolition, there will likely be a need for specialized and intensive support for those who have struggled so much in their life that they were once imprisoned–case workers, using a variety of techniques and in it for the long haul, could be used for formerly incarcerated people much like some suggested they be used for those released from institutions. Lamb and Bachrach also suggest mindset changes, like being willing to be flexible when helping people. This can, for our purposes, mean both flexibility when figuring out an individual’s needs and flexibility in the movement as a whole. We will need to be able to adjust and grow as we build a new kind of world. However, what is perhaps the most important point made is that mentally ill people need to be seen for their whole humanities, which is a mindset we must also encourage the community to apply to all incarcerated people. 

As we have now seen, examining the similarities between these two movements, deinstitutionalization and abolition, has a fair bit of useful potential. My hope is that this analysis can both help committed abolitionists, even just a little bit, in their continuing quest to create alternatives to prisons, as well as help skeptics, through the power of comparison, to imagine how the world could potentially be different. Take from this essay what you need, then keep going; the building of our new world will require lots of imagination.

Ian H. is a student and young anarchist organizer. Taking a particular interest in mutual aid and the building of dual power, he seeks to help build a better world and is always looking to learn more.

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Works Cited

Lamb, H. R., and L. L. Bachrach. “Some Perspectives on Deinstitutionalization.” Psychiatric Services, vol. 52, no. 8, Aug. 2001, pp. 1039–45.  https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ps.52.8.1039.  Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.

Miller, Greg. “The Invention of Incarceration.” Knowable Magazine, Mar. 2022, https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/society/2022/prison-history-ashley-rubin-q. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024. 

Roth, Alisa. “The Truth about Deinstitutionalization.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 25 May 2021, www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/05/truth-about-deinstitutionalization/618986/.  Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.

Smith, Tiana. “The Prison Abolition Movement (1985- ).” Black Past, 12 Mar. 2018, www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/prison-abolition-movement-1985. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.