Remembering an Infamous New York Institution
Mentally ill patients sit on benches and on the floor in the women's ward at Willowbrook, Staten Island, N.Y., in January 1972. Bill Pierce/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images hide caption
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Bill Pierce/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
By the mid 1960s, Willowbrook, a Staten Island institution for mentally ill or delayed children, was filled to more than double its capacity. But crowding was the least of the horrors: Some residents of the state-run institution were reportedly used as test cases for hepatitis studies.
Others were left to languish, abused and living in squalor with little medical or mental health care. It wasn't until a print reporter named Jane Kurtin and then an aggressive 29-year-old investigative TV reporter — Geraldo Rivera — went in with hidden cameras that the world woke up to these forgotten children.
Now Vanessa Leigh DeBello tracks her mother's 16-year stay at the school in a new memoir Moron: A Daughter's Story of an Accidental Childhood in Willowbrook. "Moron" was one of three scientific terms established in the early 1900s for people with developmental delays. The strongest term was "idiot," followed by "imbecile."
So-called morons were considered high-functioning, and it was this opinion that doomed the Staten Island girl. At 18 months, the elder DeBello wasn't walking or talking. Her parents took her to a specialist, and after psychological exams and an IQ test that pegged her at 53 points, the recommendation was institutionalization. When she was 3, DeBello's parents dropped her off at Willowbrook, where she lived until she was 19 years old.
DeBello says her mother was always very open about her formative years at the New York school. DeBello remembers asking simple questions like "Did you have toothbrushes?" She says her mom recalled that basic necessities like toiletries were chronically missing. DeBello says her mother's mouth is filled with cavities. "I remember looking ... and seeing all that silver. 'Wow, look at that. When am I getting that?' "
But as she got older, DeBello learned not to envy her mother's past. Willowbrook was plagued by poor hygienic conditions. Residents suffered from skin rashes, DeBello says. There was constant poking and prodding with needles and an endless series of injections. When Robert F. Kennedy visited the school in 1965, he called Willowbrook a "snake pit." From the conditions her mother described, DeBello says, he was probably reacting as much to the smell as he was criticizing vicious and uncaring management.
Perhaps the most striking form of abuse is this: Some of the residents were deliberately exposed to hepatitis. Experts estimate that close to 100 percent of residents would have tested positive for the disease. Some contracted hepatitis through unsanitary drinking water, others were injected directly. Still others, DeBello says, were fed hepatitis-contaminated feces.
How could this happen? "The mentality was to put [these children] where we can't see them," DeBello says. She describes the Willowbrook campus — now used by the College of Staten Island — as isolated, with thick trees and a sense of being hidden. "Out of sight," she says, "it was also out of consciousness." Many parents left their children there and never came back.
Rivera's gripping TV coverage of conditions at Willowbrook not only helped shutter the institution, but also changed the way people were treated at such places nationwide. Willowbrook has been closed for more than 20 years. But DeBello says the site itself could be a more vivid reminder of what happened. Visit the former campus, she says, and you may not even know what happened. "There needs to be more education so we don't see something like Willowbrook ever happen again."
The legacy of Willowbrook remained alive in DeBello's mother. DeBello says her mother was always dressed poorly, even years after her discharge when she was married and had children. DeBello says she never achieved a sense of self-worth. "Take the credit card," her husband would say. "Go, buy something!"
No matter what, it will always remain true that DeBello's mother spent 16 grueling years at Willowbrook. The cruelest irony? "My mother was not mentally retarded," DeBello says. "She was misdiagnosed. She was an insider and was completely aware of the circ*mstances and abuse and neglect."
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FAQs
The New York Times' investigation found that “Many of the institution's 2,300 alumni who are alive today still suffer from mistreatment" (Weiser).
Is Willowbrook based on a true story? ›
Based on the true story of Willowbrook State School for children, the Staten Island facility whose deplorable treatment of residents was first exposed by reporters Geraldo Rivera and Jane Kurtin in the early 1970s.
What happened to the kids at Willowbrook? ›
Many who came to Willowbrook lived a short, brutal existence. They died because of neglect, violence, lack of nutrition, and medical mismanagement or experimentation. Some simply disappeared or even committed suicide.
What is the famous mental institution in New York City? ›
A Cornerstone of Mental Healthcare in New York City for More Than 60 Years. For more than six decades, Gracie Square Hospital has provided comprehensive and personalized behavioral healthcare to thousands of individuals in New York City and beyond.
Who exposed the Willowbrook scandal? ›
We look back at journalist Geraldo Rivera's 1972 landmark investigation of Staten Island's Willowbrook State School, an institution for the developmentally disabled. His expose forever changed the face of mental health.
Why did Geraldo Rivera expose Willowbrook? ›
The film, with then Eyewitness News reporter Geraldo Rivera, was one of the first exposes on local television. Rivera broke the stories, after doctors, disgusted by what they were seeing at Willowbrook, let him in -- to tell the world what was really going on behind closed doors.
What happens in the Lost Girls of Willowbrook? ›
The Lost Girls of Willowbrook is a historical fiction novel about a sister searching for her twin after she disappears from the infamous Willowbrook State School on Staten Island. It also has elements of mystery and crime thriller.
What are the horrors of Willowbrook? ›
Shortly thereafter, in early 1972, Geraldo Rivera, then an investigative reporter for WABC-TV in New York, conducted a series of investigations at Willowbrook uncovering a host of deplorable conditions, including overcrowding, inadequate sanitary facilities, and physical and sexual abuse of residents by members of the ...
Is there a documentary about Willowbrook State School? ›
Rivera recalled the story of Bernard, a patient he interviewed at the school. He was 21 years old at the time but had been at the school since he was a toddler. (Bernard Carabello also appears in the 2023 documentary The Path Forward: Remembering Willowbrook).
What is the most infamous asylum? ›
Bethlem Royal Hospital was England's first asylum for the treatment of mental illness, and for many years a place of inhumane conditions, the nickname of which – Bedlam – became a byword for mayhem or madness. It was also a popular London attraction for the morbidly entertained.
On Oct. 31, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed a bill meant to free many thousands of Americans with mental illnesses from life in institutions. It envisioned building 1,500 outpatient mental health centers to offer them community-based care instead.
Who shut down the mental hospitals in NY? ›
Starting in the 1970s, New York State government began a long term 'deinstitutionalization' effort of mental health services. They sought to end large-scale institutions for people with mental disorders and transition to smaller, regional community centers that are prevalent today.
What happened to Bernard from Willowbrook? ›
Though retired, he remains a passionate advocate on behalf of people with developmental and other disabilities and continues to be a key figure in the self-advocacy movement. Bernard is one of the great civil rights leaders of our time.
Does Willowbrook State School still exist? ›
Willowbrook State School was a state-supported institution for children with intellectual disabilities in the Willowbrook neighborhood of Staten Island in New York City, which operated from 1947 until 1987.
How many people are in Willowbrook State School? ›
On a campus as large as Willowbrook, with a population at its height of more than 6,000 residents, the social situation in any one building or on a particular ward could be very different, depending on a variety of factors: type and degree of disability, the staff and administrators in charge, and additional support ...
Who broke the Willowbrook story? ›
In 1972, ABC News investigative reporter Geraldo Rivera again drew national attention to Willowbrook with a television exposé that was watched by millions. Willowbrook: The Last Disgrace, exposed the institution's serious overcrowding, dehumanizing practices, dangerous conditions and regular abuse of residents.
