View source for Willowbrook State School

{{Short description|Former institution for intellectually disabled children}}
{{Use American English|date=August 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{infobox school
 | name                    = Willowbrook State School
 | image                   = Willowbrook State School (NYPL b15279351-105038) - cropped.jpg
 | caption                 = Postcard of the school hospital building
 | location                = [[Staten Island, New York]], U.S.
 | coordinates             = {{Coord|40|35|59|N|74|09|06|W|display=inline,title}}
 | opened                  = 1947
 | closed                  = 1987
}}
'''Willowbrook State School''' was a [[State schools (people with disabilities)|state-supported institution]] for children with [[Intellectual disability|intellectual disabilities]] in the [[Willowbrook, Staten Island|Willowbrook]] neighborhood of [[Staten Island]] in [[New York City]], which operated from 1947 until 1987.

The school was designed for 4,000, but by 1965 it had a population of 6,000. At the time, it was the biggest state-run institution for people with mental disabilities in the United States.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BosLzxdIEdgC&q=willowbrook+state+school+largest&pg=PA10 |title=The Praeger Handbook of Special Education |author=Alberto M. Bursztyn |publisher=Praeger Publishers |edition=1st |date=December 30, 2006 |isbn=0-313-33262-2 |access-date=October 16, 2020 |archive-date=September 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230904165449/https://books.google.com/books?id=BosLzxdIEdgC&q=willowbrook+state+school+largest&pg=PA10 |url-status=live }}</ref> Living conditions at the school were crowded and filthy, and during its first decade of its operation outbreaks of [[hepatitis]], primarily [[hepatitis A]], were common. Medical researchers initially carried out research on the disease and its effects at the school, which was discontinued after public outcry. The conditions and questionable medical practices and experiments prompted US Senator [[Robert F. Kennedy]] to call it a "snake pit".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/archives/WillowbrookRG.htm |title=A Guide to Willowbrook State School Resources at Other Institutions |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414093059/http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/archives/WillowbrookRG.htm |date=2012-04-14 |access-date=August 25, 2009 |archive-date=April 14, 2012}}</ref> The institution gained national infamy in 1972, when [[Geraldo Rivera]] did an exposé on the conditions there.<ref name="Great Disgrace"/> Public outcry led to its closure in 1987, and to [[Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act|federal civil rights]] legislation protecting people with disabilities. A February 2020 ''[[New York Times]]'' investigation found that the alumni of Willowbrook continue to be abused in smaller [[group home]]s.<ref name="NYT Weiser"/>

A portion of the grounds and some of the buildings were incorporated into the campus of the [[College of Staten Island]], which moved to Willowbrook in the early 1990s. Records and documentation relating to the experiences of the school residents and staff, and the activities of parents and caregivers who brought about the closure of the school are held by the College of Staten Island Library Archives.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Willowbrook State School {{!}} College of Staten Island ArchivesSpace |url=https://archivesspace.library.csi.cuny.edu/subjects/259 |access-date=2024-10-09 |website=archivesspace.library.csi.cuny.edu}}</ref>

==Construction and early conversion==
In 1938, plans were drawn up to build a facility for people who had an intellectual disability on {{convert|375|acre}} in the [[Willowbrook, Staten Island|Willowbrook]] section of Staten Island. The residents didn’t want a facility of the sorts in the area because they feared an uptick in crime. Construction was completed in 1942, but instead of opening for its original purpose, it was converted into a [[United States Army]] hospital, and named Halloran General Hospital, after the late Colonel Paul Stacey Halloran. After World War II, proposals were introduced to turn the site over to the [[United States Department of Veterans Affairs|Veterans Administration]], but in October 1947, the [[New York State Office of Mental Health|New York State Department of Mental Hygiene]] opened its facility there. Falling back on previous plans, they started admitting children and adults to the "school". The institution was named Willowbrook State School.

==Hepatitis studies==
Throughout the first decade of its operation, outbreaks of [[hepatitis]], primarily [[hepatitis A]], were common at the school. This led to controversial medical studies being carried out there by medical researchers [[Saul Krugman]] of [[New York University]] and [[Robert W. McCollum]] of [[Yale University]]. Between 1956 and 1971, Krugman and McCollum monitored subjects to gauge the effects of [[gamma globulin]] in combating hepatitis. One result of the research was a better understanding of the differences between [[serum hepatitis]], which is spread by [[blood transfusion]]s, and [[infectious hepatitis]], which is spread directly from person to person and is the more common form.<ref name=Hastings>{{Cite journal |last=Rothman |first=David |year=1982 |title=Were Tuskegee and Willowbrook 'Studies in Nature'? |jstor=3561798 |journal=The Hastings Center Report |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=5–7 |doi=10.2307/3561798 |pmid=7096065}}</ref><ref name=NYT>Hevesi, Dennis. [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/education/26mccollum.html "Robert W. McCollum, Dean of Dartmouth Medical School, Dies at 85"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120905054630/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/education/26mccollum.html?_r=1 |date=2012-09-05 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', September 25, 2010. Accessed September 26, 2010.</ref> A public outcry forced the research project and medical studies to be discontinued.

[[Paul A. Offit]] described Krugman's studies as follows:

<blockquote>In an effort to control outbreaks of hepatitis, the medical staff at Willowbrook consulted Saul Krugman.... Krugman found that hepatitis developed in 90 percent of children admitted to Willowbrook soon after their arrival. Although it was known that hepatitis was caused by a virus, it wasn't known how hepatitis virus spread, whether it could be prevented, or how many types of viruses caused the disease. Krugman used the children of Willowbrook to answer those questions. One of his studies involved feeding live hepatitis virus from others stool samples to sixty healthy children. Krugman watched as their skin and eyes turned yellow and their livers got bigger. He watched them vomit and refuse to eat. All the children fed hepatitis virus became ill, some severely. Krugman reasoned that it was justifiable to inoculate retarded children at Willowbrook with hepatitis virus because most of them would get hepatitis anyway. But by purposefully giving the children hepatitis, Krugman increased that chance to 100 percent.<ref name=Offit>{{cite book |author=Offit, Paul A. |author-link1=Paul Offit |year=2007 |title=Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases |publisher=Smithsonian Books/Collins |isbn=978-0-06-122795-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/vaccinatedoneman00offi/page/27 27] |url=https://archive.org/details/vaccinatedoneman00offi/page/27}}</ref></blockquote>

According to vaccinologist [[Maurice Hilleman]], "They [the Willowbrook studies] were the most unethical medical experiments ever performed on children in the United States."<ref name=Offit/> Historian David Rothman notes that, "The research was even included in Henry Beecher's 1966 ''New England Journal of Medicine'' listing of 'ethically dubious' experiments."<ref name=Hastings /> Bioethicist [[Art Caplan]] has stated that, "The Willowbrook studies were a turning point in how we thought about medical experiments on retarded children... Children inoculated with hepatitis virus had no chance to benefit from the procedure—only the chance to be harmed."<ref name=Offit/>

==Scandals and abuses==
By 1965, Willowbrook housed over 6,000 intellectually disabled people despite having a maximum capacity of 4,000. US Senator [[Robert F. Kennedy]] toured the institution in 1965 and proclaimed that individuals in the overcrowded facility were "living in filth and dirt, their clothing in rags, in rooms less comfortable and cheerful than the cages in which we put animals in a zoo" and offered a series of recommendations for improving conditions.<ref>{{cite news |author=Staff |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30E17F63C5A157A93C2A81782D85F418685F9 |title=Excerpts From Statement by Kennedy |journal=[[The New York Times]] |date=September 10, 1965 |access-date=September 26, 2010 |archive-date=November 6, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106060946/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30E17F63C5A157A93C2A81782D85F418685F9 |url-status=live }}</ref> Although the hepatitis study had been discontinued, the residential school's reputation was that of a warehouse for New York City's mentally disabled people, many of whom were presumably abandoned there by their families, foster care agencies, or other systems designed to care for them. [[Donna J. Stone]], an advocate for mentally disabled children and victims of [[child abuse]], gained access to the school by posing as a recent social work graduate. She then shared her observations with members of the press.<ref>{{cite book |author=Rivera, Geraldo |author-link=Geraldo Rivera |title=Willowbrook: A Report on How it is and Why it Doesn't Have to Be That Way |publisher=New York: Random House |year=1972 |isbn=0-394-71844-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/willowbrookrepor00rive}}</ref>

A series of articles in local newspapers, including the ''[[Staten Island Advance]]'' and the ''[[Staten Island Register]]'', described the crowded, filthy living conditions at Willowbrook, and the [[negligent]] treatment of some of its residents. [[Jane Kurtin]] was the first reporter to write a story about Willowbrook State School after she visited Willowbrook in order to cover a demonstration that social workers and parents of the residents had organized.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87975196 |title=Remembering an Infamous New York Institution |work=NPR |date=March 7, 2008 |access-date=2020-04-09 |archive-date=2020-12-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204181230/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87975196 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.silive.com/news/2017/01/the_horrors_of_willowbrook_sta.html |title=The horrors of Willowbrook State School |date=19 January 2017 |access-date=8 May 2017 |archive-date=12 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912194337/http://www.silive.com/news/2017/01/the_horrors_of_willowbrook_sta.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Kurtin wanted to get inside the buildings, and social workers Elizabeth Lee and Ira Fisher brought her inside.

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 abuse|physical]] and [[sexual abuse|sexual]] abuse of residents by members of the school's staff. Rivera then visited several facilities in [[California]]. While the conditions in the California facilities were found to have been significantly improved, the conditions at Willowbrook remained neglectful. The exposé, entitled ''Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace'',<ref name="Great Disgrace">{{cite book |author=Rivera, Geraldo |title=Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace |year=1972 |publisher=WABC-TV |url=https://sproutflix.org/store/willowbrook-last-great-disgrace |access-date=2014-02-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302101905/https://sproutflix.org/store/willowbrook-last-great-disgrace |archive-date=2014-03-02 |url-status=dead}}</ref> garnered national attention and won a [[Peabody Award]] for Rivera.<ref name="Powers185">{{cite book |last=Powers |first=Ron |author-link=Ron Powers |title=The Newscasters: The News Business as Show Business |isbn=978-0312572075 |year=1977 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/newscasters00ronp/page/185 185] |url=https://archive.org/details/newscasters00ronp/page/185}}</ref> Rivera later appeared on the nationally televised ''[[Dick Cavett Show]]'' with film of patients at the school. As a result of the overcrowding and inhumane conditions, a [[class-action lawsuit]] was filed against the State of New York by the parents of 5,000 residents of Willowbrook in federal court on March 17, 1972. This was known as ''New York ARC v. Rockefeller''. Elizabeth Lee's employment was terminated in 1972 as a result of her activism with the parents.<ref>JOHN SIBLEY (February 4, 1972). [https://www.nytimes.com/1972/02/04/archives/commissioner-wont-reinstate-two-dismissed-at-willowbrook.html?_r=0 Commissioner Won't Reinstate Two Dismissed at Willowbrook] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210102170105/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/02/04/archives/commissioner-wont-reinstate-two-dismissed-at-willowbrook.html?_r=0 |date=2021-01-02 }} The New York Times</ref>

Rivera's exposé motivated [[John Lennon]] and [[Yoko Ono]] to hold a benefit concert for Willowbrook, performing two shows at [[Madison Square Garden]] on August 30, 1972. A recording of the concert was released after Lennon's death as ''[[Live in New York City (John Lennon album)|Live in New York City]]'', and the concert is the centerpiece of the 2024 documentary ''[[One to One: John & Yoko]]''.<ref>{{cite news |first=Xan |last=Brooks |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/aug/30/one-to-one-john-yoko-review-lennon-kevin-macdonald |title=One to One: John & Yoko review – fun, fierce, full-blooded portrait of Lennon and Ono |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=30 August 2024 |accessdate=8 April 2025}}</ref>

In 1975, a consent judgment was signed, and it committed New York state to improve community placement for the now-designated "Willowbrook Class". The publicity generated by the case was a major contributing factor to the passage of a [[federal law]] — the [[Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act|Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980]].

According to a February 2020 ''[[New York Times]]'' investigation "[t]hat vow has been broken: Many of the institution's 2,300 alumni who are alive today still suffer from mistreatment." ''The Times'' reported that in 2019 there have been "97 reported allegations of physical abuse by group home workers against Willowbrook alumni..." also "34 allegations of psychological abuse and hundreds more of neglect and other mistreatment, like improper use of restraints or seclusion, medication errors and theft." Investigations were conducted by the [[New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities]] but were unable to prove abuse claiming that "Strong union protections allowed them to block their dismissals in arbitration." [[Bronx County District Attorney]] [[Darcel Clark]] investigated one facility that houses Willowbrook alumni but found insufficient evidence for abuse, witnesses not willing to come forward, and victims not able to speak for themselves. "It’s not whether or not it happened," she said. "It's what could we prove."<ref name="NYT Weiser">{{cite news |last1=Weiser |first1=Benjamin |title=Beatings, Burns and Betrayal: The Willowbrook Scandal's Legacy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/21/nyregion/willowbrook-state-school-staten-island.html |website=[[The New York Times]] |date=21 February 2020 |access-date=8 October 2020 |archive-date=19 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019091557/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/21/nyregion/willowbrook-state-school-staten-island.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Closure==
In 1975, a Willowbrook [[Consent Decree]] was signed that committed New York state to improve community placement for the now designated "Willowbrook Class".<ref name=omrdd>[http://www.omr.state.ny.us/journal/20aniv/hp_journal2mile.jsp Milestones in OMRDD's History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070403224239/http://www.omr.state.ny.us/journal/20aniv/hp_journal2mile.jsp |date=2007-04-03 }}, ''OMRDD'', (2001-09-19). Retrieved 2007-09-05.</ref>

In 1983, the state of New York announced plans to close Willowbrook, which had been renamed the Staten Island Developmental Center in 1974. By the end of March 1986, the number of residents housed there had dwindled to 250, and the last children left the grounds on September 17, 1987. After the developmental center closed, the site became the focus of intense local debate about what should be done with the property. In 1989, a portion of the land was acquired by the city of New York, with the intent of using it to establish a new campus for the College of Staten Island, and the new campus opened at Willowbrook in 1993. This campus is the largest maintained by the [[City University of New York]]. Within the year, one of CSI's two other existing campuses, located in the [[Sunnyside, Staten Island|Sunnyside]] neighborhood, was closed, renovated, and reopened in 1995 as the home of the new K-12 [[Michael J. Petrides School]]. The rest of Willowbrook's original property is still under the administration of the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) —an agency of New York State— and houses the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities, and the Staten Island Developmental Disabilities Service Office.

On February 25, 1987, the [[United States federal courts|Federal Court]] approved the Willowbrook "1987 Stipulation", which set forth guidelines that required OMRDD (Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities; renamed the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, in July 2010) community placement for the "Willowbrook Class".<ref name=omrdd/> The Willowbrook School was closed that year. All but about 150 of the former Willowbrook residents were moved to group homes by 1992. Significant members of the "Willowbrook Class" were not as intellectually limited as the term "developmental delay" would indicate. Some had [[cerebral palsy]], a developmental disability that can be accompanied by varying degrees of intellectual impairment, and some members of this class were cognitively quite intact, yet unable to communicate verbally due to their physical condition. These ex-residents of Willowbrook, many now in their 50s and 60s, live in a variety of community residences and attend day programs throughout New York State, under the care of organizations such as [[United Cerebral Palsy]] or the Jewish Guild for the Blind.

In the 1991 book ''The Soul of a Cop'', retired NYPD detective Paul Ragonese describes responding to "building two" of the abandoned Willowbrook campus as a member of the NYPD Bomb Squad. Ragonese describes an abandoned building full of hazardous chemicals, including explosive [[picric acid]] crystals, along with rooms full of jars containing specimens of human organs. Ragonese goes on to write that the incident was largely covered up by local officials.<ref>The Soul of a Cop, Paul Ragonese & Barry Stainback, 1991 St. Martins Press0</ref>

==Former students==
In 1997, [[Danny Aiello]] hosted, and [[Geraldo Rivera]] served as commentator for, a 57-minute documentary titled ''Unforgotten: 25 Years After Willowbrook'', which revisits Staten Island's Willowbrook State School, "remembering the over 5,000 children who were living in the facility at the time and focusing on three former residents, to see how the effects of the institution have been felt by families and friends of patients as well."<ref>{{cite news |author=Cammila Collar |title=Review Summary - ''Unforgotten: 25 Years After Willowbrook'' (1997), Alternate title: ''Unforgotten: Twenty-Five Years After Willowbrook'' |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/176001/Unforgotten-25-Years-After-Willowbrook/overview |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080226073427/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/176001/Unforgotten-25-Years-After-Willowbrook/overview |url-status=dead |archive-date=2008-02-26 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2008 |access-date=6 June 2013}}</ref> Writes ''The New York Times'' reviewer, [[Stephen Holden]]:

<blockquote>As graphically as it recounts the horrors of the past, ''Unforgotten'' is less concerned with raking the coals of an old scandal than with showing how the treatment of the mentally disabled has since improved. The film ... focuses on the lives of two who were once incarcerated at Willowbrook but subsequently flourished in group homes situated in close proximity to their families. / A third longtime resident of Willowbrook, Bernard Carabello, is also interviewed. Mr. Carabello, who suffers from cerebral palsy, spent 18 years at Willowbrook after being misdiagnosed as mentally retarded at the age of 3. / In looking at the lives of Patty Ann Meskell and Luis Rivera (who died shortly after the film was completed), both of whom spent many years at Willowbrook, the movie stresses their essential humanity. Each is shown interacting with loving family members who are still deeply stung by memories of visits to Willowbrook more than 25 years ago. / The film, narrated by Danny Aiello, isn't so much an investigative documentary as a blunt plea for the humane treatment of the mentally disabled. It also warns that despite changes in social attitudes (the Special Olympics are cited as a shining example of progress), Willowbrook could happen again. Remembrance is a vital key to the prevention of future abuse.<ref>{{cite news |title=Movie Review: ''Unforgotten 25 Years After Willowbrook'' (1997): A Plea for Treating People Humanely |author=Stephen Holden |date=February 14, 1997 |journal=The New York Times |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=990CE2DA173FF937A25751C0A961958260}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |publisher=City Lights International |title=Unforgotten: Twenty-Five Years After Willowbrook |url=http://www.hulu.com/watch/194496#i0,p0,d1 |date=1997-02-14 |access-date=2013-06-07 |archive-date=2013-09-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130918014638/http://www.hulu.com/watch/194496#i0,p0,d1 |url-status=live }}</ref></blockquote>

In March 2009, a fire in a residence in [[Wells, New York]], killed four members of the "Willowbrook Class".<ref>{{cite news |title='Willowbrook Class' members killed in fire at group home; were part of infamous suit vs. S.I. school |author=TRACY CONNOR / DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER |date=March 21, 2009 <!-- 1:54 PM --> |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/willowbrook-class-members-killed-fire-group-home-part-infamous-suit-s-i-school-article-1.370717 |journal=New York Daily News}}</ref>

Willowbrook State Hospital is mentioned in the 2009 documentary movie ''[[Cropsey (film)|Cropsey]]'' as having reportedly housed convicted child kidnapper [[Andre Rand]], who had previously worked there as an [[orderly]].<ref>{{cite book |publisher=Philadelphia, Penn.: Breaking Glass Pictures |year=2011 |title=Cropsey |url=http://nypl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/19021445052907_cropsey |access-date=2013-06-06 |archive-date=2015-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150203203242/http://nypl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/19021445052907_cropsey |url-status=live }}</ref> One of Rand's supposed victims, Jennifer Schweiger, was found buried in a shallow grave behind the grounds of the abandoned Willowbrook State School, which was built under the same design as [[Pilgrim State Hospital]].

In 2011, a former resident of Willowbrook State School, a [[Savant syndrome|savant]] named [[Anthony Torrone]], wrote a Christian prayer book titled ''Anthony's Prayers'' that was inspired by his time and the abuse he experienced at the school.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.mlive.com/living/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/11/anthonys_prayers_a_simple_book.html |title=Anthony's Prayers: A simple book by Grand Rapids Anthony Torrone, a grateful survivor |author=Anthony Torrone |date=26 November 2011 |access-date=8 January 2012 |archive-date=19 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019073017/http://www.mlive.com/living/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/11/anthonys_prayers_a_simple_book.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.silive.com/worship/2012/01/my_lord_savior_god_helped_me_s.html |title='My Lord Savior God helped me survive' |date=7 January 2012 |access-date=2012-01-08 |archive-date=2012-01-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108062053/http://www.silive.com/worship/2012/01/my_lord_savior_god_helped_me_s.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|New York City|Medicine}}
* [[Developmental disability]]
* [[Human experimentation in the United States]]
* [[Summit Children's Residence Center]]
* [[The Ladd School]]
* [[Trenton Psychiatric Hospital]]
* [[Tuskegee Syphilis Study]]
* [[Walter E. Fernald State School]]
* [[William Bronston]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==

* {{Cite episode |title=The Promise |series=The Weekly |series-link=The New York Times Presents |network=[[FX (TV channel)|FX]] |date=February 21, 2020 |season=1 |number=27}}
* {{cite journal |title=Beyond the Willowbrook Wars: The Courts and Institutional Reform |author=Grossman, Joel B. |journal=American Bar Foundation Research Journal |volume=12 |number=1 |date=Winter 1987 |pages=249–259 |doi=10.1111/j.1747-4469.1987.tb00536.x}}
* {{cite magazine |title=The Lawyers' Plot |author=Klein, Joel |magazine=New Republic |date=February 4, 1985 |volume=192 |number=5 |page=28}}
* {{cite journal |title=The Willowbrook Wars |author=Peele, Roger |journal=The American Journal of Psychiatry |number=9 |date=September 1, 1985 |volume=142 |pages=1111–a–1112 |doi=10.1176/ajp.142.9.1111-a}}
* {{cite book |author1=Rothman, David J. |author2=Rothman, Sheila M. |title=The Willowbrook Wars |url=https://archive.org/details/willowbrookwars00roth |url-access=registration |date=October 1984 |publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=978-0-06-015234-5}}
* {{Cite Q|Q125974314}}

{{New York Psychiatric Centers}}
{{Medical ethics cases}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Hospital buildings completed in 1942]]
[[Category:School buildings completed in 1942]]
[[Category:Defunct hospitals in Staten Island]]
[[Category:Hospitals established in 1942]]
[[Category:Human subject research in the United States]]
[[Category:Psychiatry controversies]]
[[Category:Psychiatric hospitals in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Defunct schools in New York City]]
[[Category:1947 establishments in New York City]]
[[Category:Intellectual disability hospitals]]
[[Category:New York State Department of Mental Hygiene]]
[[Category:Educational institutions established in 1947]]
[[Category:Educational institutions disestablished in 1987]]
[[Category:Hospitals disestablished in 1987]]
[[Category:1987 disestablishments in New York City]]
[[Category:Violence against disabled people]]