I was an observer in Western State (Mental) Hospital in 1973
Formerly known as ‘Western Washington Hospital for the Insane’ and before that ‘the Insane Asylum of Washington Territory’, Frances Farmer had been a patient there.
I didn’t say JFK closed the state hospitals, I said he emptied them, which was the effect over time.
I think that we are both correct. It sounds like Kennedy allowed that mentally ill people had the option of being institutionalized and that Reagan reinforced their rights of self diagnosis (whether they need to be institutionalized or not).
And I thoroughly agree that this had made streets unsafe and that in the long run, it is no help to the mentally ill either.