Philadelphia State Hospital: "This 16-year-old girl might have been sent home cured were she afforded active psychiatric treatment. At Byberry she faced a dismal future, a potential candidate for one of the dreaded 'back wards' where the forgotten men and women await a merciful death. She wore a ribbon-tied cloth for shoes." (the Shame of the States, Albert Deutsch)

Freeing the Patients: In 1792, Dr. Philippe Pinel, a Paris physician, introduced the era of "Moral Treatment." Moral Treatment consisted of a proper diet, dignified work, kindness and respect. No restraints or punishments were used. The newspapers of the day were quick to point out the common basis between the French Revolution and the removal of restraints from "the mentally-ill." This form of treatment increased discharge rates to levels that, until then, had never been attained. By the following century, however, as the advocates of forced treatment introduced their "scientific advances" such forms of treatment slowly vanished and the level of discharge rates once again plummeted.

Cleveland State Hospital: http://www.rootsweb.com/~asylums/cleveland_oh/index.html