Watching the Outside

Its hard to imagine that they would just classify a child as retarded and then just sit them in a chair stareing out of a window . If anything is going to effect them mentally its isolating them in such a horrible and inhummane manor. Im not suprised that many patients regressed to a far worse state.

It's my impression that there were far, far worse things happening at Pennhurst than simply being allowed to just sit and stare out a window. Seems an odd thing to complain about, really, in light of the rest of the abuse and neglect. I'm sure some of those kids would rather have been staring out a window.

...Not to mention, the chair might not have been in that position the last time someone sat in it. ;)

I agree with Ilaynay.

I know that when I am stressed or depressed or practicly haveing a nervous breakdown, sitting next to a window and just looking up at the sky calms me down a bit.

I can almost imagine myself as one of these patients,staring out at the world that has forgotten me and knowing nothing of the outside.

The treatment of mentally handicapped has changed dramatically over the years. It went from people being locked in basements and attics at home to 1 on 1 treatment in facilities which included sensory deprivation, leaching and solitary confinement to in some state institutions to over population and neglect. Now they are "normalized" into society. I worked in a facility for some time and could not mentally handle it myself (I was affraid I would loose touch emotionally and become a "client") I traind near and had the oppertunity to tour Danvers state
http://www.danvers-state-ia.com/home.html
which will be coming down soon (wish I could go back there and photograph it prior to destruction...another one going away...)

the images this picture brings to mind are really intense if it was any other place i wouldnt mind but knowing what i do of the inhumane treatment of the patients at pennhurst. this picture seems a little out of place...........you are a genius motts

you think being isolated, staring out a window, is torture? at Pennhurst, they STILL have old home movies on old-fashoined movie reels that show people being tortured, for real. they shocked them with wires for lights, cut them with glass, ect. The only way u can see whats on them is by looking at the reel's "tape".

Who still has home movies? Who made them?

What movies are you talking about Sam?I know abuse did happen at Pennhurst and film was taken of the horrid conditions but they showed nothing quite that extreme and if they did things of that nature Pennhurst would have been shutdown long before it was and most of the staff would have been incarcerated.

Orchid, they didnt find those reels until the post-closing inspection... Lynne, they are still at Pennhurst, unless someone has taken them , and they were made by staff members.

Well, I'd love to see them. I am in contact with some of the people who were responsible for some of the Pennhurst post-closure monitoring, and I am sure they would be quite interested in seeing them as well.

Where did you see these/find out about these Sam?I'm with Lynne.It might be horrible but I'm very curious about these.It rings slightly of an urban legend more than anything factual but then again you never know.

idk where they what exact builind they were found in, because i was there with my friends exploring after we heard stories about the electricity being on there. My Haden happened to have found the reels and showed it to us..... they were somewhere in the very back, WAY away from any entrances i know of.

and im not even completely sure that they were found by the inspectors...you know, urban legends and stuff.but i do no that we found them, an they were horrible, so evil that just looking at them brought tears to my eyes

hey sam did you ever run into any hobos back there me and my friends used to get chased back by them it was pretty creepy but i know what you are talking about those reels i heard about it but never found them.

yea theres a bunch htat live in the stairwells, and they chase us too...but we dont care that much, considering they make holes in the walls and fences, and also open doors. that helps us kids alot

I never got chased by anyone but the police...
and as for the reels...how did you watch them in Pennhurst? The movie projector in the auditorium dosent work anymore.

You couldnt have taken them home to watch, then not know where you brought them back to. and why would the staff make tapes of themselves doing those things to the patients? Its basically just like admitting that you abuse the patients. Its evidence for court. That wouldnt be too smart.

I doubt these movies exist.

Kelly, read my other post b4 u criticize me. do u have any brains at all? im 12 and im apperently more intelligent. think about this: the old movie REELS-not video tapes- that they were made on were just photos being switched fast, like a flipbook. you can just look at the pictures. and who said that the staff was smart? im not saying anyone that worked at Pennhurst was a complete dimwit or a total asshole, because i no that Cody's mom was the complete opposite. but, some staff members were.

Sam, yes, you seem quite intellegent to me.
If you do ever go back again, see if you can re-find them, While I would never condone torture, I am very curious to hear what exactly is on the pics.
I am very surprised that no one turned them over to the police....... weird.....

its wierd to see a chair in the room just sitting there. i couldnt imagine having nothing to do but sit and stare outside wondering when im going to get to go outside

I'm not sure I'm buying Sam's comments about finding these films. I just found some old movie reels in my attic and depending on the size of the film I'm not sure you would be able to make out any of this stuff he has talked about. And considering age and the elements I'm even less sure. However if indeed he has seen some film I would guess that it may be from when new employees started I seem to recall seeing some footage of the way institutions used to be. I'm not even sure if it was actual footage of Pennhurst but an overview of instituional life past and present. I do know that during the 70's and 80's employees were not allowed to bring in movie cameras. We're not talking small camcorders here. Also I get the feeling Sam is more than one person. His posts are all over the place. Sometimes he posts like a 12 yr old other times like an adult.

I have been this room and sat in this chair. I am a big fan of Pennhurst exploration. This photographer has shown me a way of looking at the remains of a truely lonely existence.

ya watching them flow by and waiting for freedom..feeling trapped..this makes me sad

I don't want to sound like a bitch but remember this school was opened in the early 1900, they didn't know what they were doing was hurting them!

so don't say it's inhumane or stuff like that, just remember they weren't as knowledgeable as we are now!
thanks

ps. that place is really cool if you ever get to go, just make sure you don't get caught!

finally a normal person....you are so right...

Well, I can see that staff in the 1900's may
have been unaware of some of the subtlities of modern humane treatment methods, but they would certainly have been aware (I would hope) that outright cruelty and neglect were exactly that. Times haven't changed that much!

I think many years ago they really didn't know HOW to treat patients and I'm sure alot of treatment was experimental. Look at all the old treatments for ailments during the civil war or in the early 1900's; can you imagine a bullet-probe going in your wound without any anesthesia? Medicine many years ago was very primitive. Alot probably didn't really know what to do with alot of the patients.

That chair was for staff, the clients sat in metal chairs or benches against the wall.

That chair looks really comfortable. Motts, if you could give me a hint as to where it might be in there, it would be greatly appreciated because i want to sit in it.

I can just see someone sitting in that chair, looking up at the window... What a strange and solemn shot.

As I read topics and hear different stories about Penn Hurst I asked a former employee about the conditions at this institution. From the information I gathered.... There was a lot of abuse and cruelty from employees. My source said that it was heart wrenching to see. But she also said that when she came aboard that a lot of changes were made to. Some of these kids didn't even get to walk in the snow, they walked through tunnels. These kids didn't even have to get dressed everyday. Some were tied up just because people didn't have the patience and love to give. My source told me that while she worked there that a lot of changes were made and people that really did care for the well being of these kids showed them patience, care and love. They put a stop to tying kids to there beds, took them outside, made sure they were dressed everyday.

Some people just go to work for a paycheck and don't care for anyone but themselves. They took a very demanding job without having a clue that it took more than just enough to get the job done..,... And then you have the FEW that want to make a difference. That want to help people, care for people, love people.

Oh please give me a freakin' break. I want to scream every time I read one of these posts about an alledged former employee who believed all it took was love and understanding to make an institution a better place. It was and always will be MONEY. Do you understand that to take a client outside to play in the snow could be a disaster waiting to happen. And for the most part there was never enough staff to do that anyway. The tunnels were there for a reason one being that in bad weather there was no need to go outside. I don't see where that is so horrible. And one last thing, I went to work there for the paycheck ( they payed pretty good at the time) and I didn't abuse anyone. I'm sure a majority of the people working in group homes are also working for their paychecks. Get real!

That picture is a heart breaker. I heard some of the inmates retardation was caused by Syphillis. So I am never going to explore those building.

I know you can't get an STD from a doorknob but it still skeeves me.

Syphilus is passed from mother to child in utero. Little chance you'd catch it from a doorknob.

Right on Pat! Right on !

Even without the ravages of time, that's still one ugly chair! LOL

I don't get comments like the first one on this page, where someone assumes that the chair was used as some kind of punishment device to make an abused kid sit and stare out the window for days at a time. We all see what we want to see in photos, I guess. To me the photo inspires hope - as if someone liked what they saw through the window, so they got up and went outside to enjoy it. Or else the chair itself is just happy sitting in the light. You don't have to know anything about the history of Pennhurst to interpret the photo...the composition itself is intriguing enough.

they had a shock machine at that place i looked on a diff website and theris a shock machine their

They did not only use shock therapy or what they would call therapy they used injections that would dibilatate an individual to a mummy state, just BECAUSE that individual was acting out, there were kids there that had ADHD which is totally controlable and they would have an I-Q that was high and they would stick them in a building called the Q building where they were locked in this class room which was more like a very large jail cell to walk around basically unattended because the hospital was over crounded by about 1,000+ individuals, but they would place these ADHD individuals in this Q building with other individuals with an I-Q of like 10 so the individuals with higher I-Q's actually were regressed to the I-Q's of those with lower I-Q's so they were looked upon as the "retarded" quote from Jesse Fear MD (what a man for a dr "DR FEAR" if he is not dead he needs to be..... go to nbc10.com search pennhurst there are about 6 video clips that were back when the hospital was open and dr fear talks alond with his other collegues that think its totally fine to use chemical,and physical restraints!!! These individuals are only a product of mislead and most of the time under educated parents and society, they were the society's individuals because there parents would turn them over to the state and most had no feelings in doing so! They were to concerned about what there friends and neighbors would think about them because they had a child that "wasnt normal", most of the individuals family and friends never came to see them! Its just a disgrace to me because i work with these special individuals and when im in society's eye there are still those unfortunate heartless bastards that still dont understand!! The world defintly needs to open their eyes to the world around them and not only to themselves!

One more thing this picture represents exactly what these individuals did....sit....wait...for....NOTHING!!!

this building should be demolished . its a depressing reminder of how we used to treat people like animals.

it reminds me of the cartoon xmen because normal people are affraid of the mutants. the mutants on xmen were not trated will by humans.

I think the opposite brian, we should keep buildings like this around as a reminder of what happened in the past.

"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."

When I first saw this shot, I thought that heater was a television set...Kinda made me think of that scene in The Wall

Thanks Krista, I had the same thought as you about the first post.

To me, this looks like a nice comfortable chair to sit in with a coffee on a side table and perhaps a good book.

Or maybe it's just getting too close to break time!

this is the home of all slaughter places they reped killed and burned their patients.....this place should be left alone so the damaged souls can rest

they cant hide the truth them bastards......i will go in der and look and see wat it reall is in the {store} where they went and never returned.....LEAVE THIS PLACE BEE

or wasp?

out of all the photos ive seen lately, this one really got to me, whether this chair belonged to the staff or a patient, as some of the post suggest, its a sad, lonely, reality of someones past. I hope who ever sat in this poor room didnt die scared and totally alone .

Another frightening thought is that there are other facilities like this still functional .......There was a report a few weeks ago about the massive TB Hospital in N.Carolina that is as deteriated as Pennhurst.
They claim that close to 63,000 people died there. TB patients were treated like 'lepers'..........sent there to die---no hope for getting cured...there WASN'T a cure.................

Please don't forget that many of the Pennhurst patients were there from early childhood or even birth.... they didn't know what it was like outside, they didn't know their families, they didn't know what it was like to be loved.... because they never had it in the first place.

best seat in the house. i call that chair

It is important to remember that many of the treatments we use today for ADHD patients were not available when these children were in this institution.
Families were told to place their child in this type of institution by their trusted family Dr. Then they were told not to visit them because it would cause problems for the child who was trying to get used to the place they lived. The attitude toward this type of child was far different than it is today.
Even today the system fails. I worked with an RN that cared for her profoundly retarded and physically disabled daughter. She took the best care of that child. When she reached 21 this nurse looked into placing her in a group home so it would become her lifestyle so there would be no transition issues when she and her husband were no longer available to care for her. They were required to sign documents that named the State of OH as the child's guardian. The
staff told the parents to stop visiting. Less than 6 months after being placed in a home this girl passed away from pneumonia. I was working in the ER when she came in and the group home had called and told us to ignore the mother and father of this child because they had no legal standing. After my friend had cared for her daughter for years and fed her slowly and carefully because she had trouble swallowing. She had warned the group home that her daughter was prone to choking and developing an aspiration pneumonia. Such a sad situation. My friend just kept saying: I thought I was doing what was right for her. So even in the new revamped care situations problems occur. We haven't got it right yet. I have my fingers crossed that we will get it right someday soon.

i think that all childeren should be able to go outside and play so that they don't become more retarted maybe that is the reason that a lot of people there were mentaly retarted

the chair has a burberry print to it

I agree with DTB we should keep and restore bildings like this so futer genarations wont repeat the past.

Im sure someone sat there a long time wishing they was on the outside!

So near but so far away freedom

The horrible things that happend... the poor sad souls stuck wondering why me? or just stuck mummbling random non meaningful bunches of slurs that nobody understood .... help? yeah right.... i feel bad for those hurt and abused children but i do somewhat understand why they couldnt go outside ... i hope they dont destroy ANY asylums or hospitals or school like this.... because they do remind us of the past. i would LOVE to come viset places like this my whole life just travel and view and read non stop about these places they really capture my attenchen i am so sucked into these things..... if you do visit these places id love pictures!!!! and some info haha heres my email. Werockyoursoxoff@aol.com no weird stalker stuff please haha