poo flinging by the trippin monkey or your friend? I mean, you did say he was a drummer and all...... ;-)

I realize I'm jumping into this a little late but I'm finding the conversation here fascinating- not as fascinating as I do Mr. Motts artwork but still....
Can we all agree that being mentally ill sucks? Sucked 50 years ago, sucks now. Sucks for the patient, sucks for the family, sucks for the caregiver, just sucks. There have been horrid methods used to treat and control mental illness. There have been horrid methods used to treat TB, cancer, you name it. We look at some of these things now and think "How could they?" Maybe 50 years from now (or less hopefully) we'll look at chemo or dialysis or prozac the same way. Think about the situation you have a bunch of people cruising around that are in this facility for mental illness, a mental illness that could leave them not understanding the harm they could do to themselves, another patient, a staff member. What is the limited amount of staff supposed to do? Allow it to happen b/c, God forbid, we don't want to infringe on anyone's human rights by restaining them safely? Or should that person be restained until they're not a danger to themselves or others? There wasn't (and still isn't) enough funding to get the care that the mentally ill need. Not enough doctors, nurses, caregivers to sit there with a patient while physically restraining them from doing harm. Out of all the groups that could potentially do the most harm to themselves and society, we still in 2008, give less funding to the needs of the mentally ill than we do say, breast cancer. (Not that breast cancer isn't a worthy cause, just not as likely to cause someone to stab their neighbor to death less than a half hour after being released from a psych ward as we saw happen last week in my town) Thus we don't have the staff to help them as completely as they need, we don't have the housing to keep them safe during treatment so they're released before they've truly been helped, insurance certainly doesn't cover mental health as they do physical illness so....what is the answer? Did abuse occur? Yes. Did horrible mistreatment happen? yes. Does it continue today? Yes but less so due to checks and balances. Does abuse and mistreatment happen in your school, your office, your church, your nursing home, your daycare, your neighbor's house, your house? Yes. Its a rotten thing but true and the people committing these unspeakable acts need serious help too. Instead of bitching in CAPS about how we can never let this happen again, realize that the way to prevent it is to raise awareness and funds.
Now, I will be turning the soapbox back over to Lynne and resume enjoying Mr. Motts lovely photos.... Thank you for your time.

People's perspectives are interesting, aren't they? I look at this picture and think "How nice. The children had toys to play with and someone that cared enough to do art projects with them." not "OMG, how could a parent lock their children up in such a place." If a child had a mental disorder, wouldn't it be more cruel and neglectful to NOT get them the help they need from professionals with the education and experience to help them versus a parent w/o the knowledge allowing them to deteriorate further?

I think even in the condition much of it is in it would be worth a fortune in architechural salvage. I know I'd pay for many of the items I've seen on this website...which I love btw.

Is it weird that I want to turn this into a loft?
Fascinating site. I'm transfixed.