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Topeka State Hospital
The Topeka State Hospital (formerly the Topeka Insane Asylum) was a publicly funded institution for the care and treatment of the mentally ill in Topeka, Kansas. It was in operation from 1872 to 1997. Located at 2700 W 6th Street, the hospital opened in 1879, after the Osawatomie State Hospital, once thought to be sufficient, became overcrowded with mentally-ill patients.
The first buildings in both Topeka and Osawatomie were designed by John G. Haskell who was among the architects of the Kansas State Capitol, and the hospital was designed in according to the Kirkbride Plan.
As of 2010, the majority of the hospital had been demolished. In June 2010, the center building was demolished.
In 1872, the hospital started operations.
Boston Corbett, who shot John Wilkes Booth in response to assassination of Abraham Lincoln, was committed here after being declared insane in 1887. Corbett escaped the asylum in 1888.
By the early 1900s, there were rumors of patients being abused, neglected, or raped. Patients were often left confined or chained for long periods of time. In the 1940s, reforms took place at the hospital. In 1951, the hospital received further criticism for treatment of patients when it was discovered that patient John Crabb, a fifty-nine-year-old immigrant from Denmark, was not clinically insane, and had been wrongfully incarcerated at the hospital.
In 1913, the Kansas legislature passed the first sterilization law in the state. In 1917, in an attempt to make the process of the law easier, a second law was passed, which eliminated some of the work for the institutions. The 1913 law was directed at "habitual criminals, idiots, epileptics, imbeciles, and insane". The 1917 law targeted the same groups, but eliminated the courts' approval from the decision.
After the passage of the sterilization law in 1913, 54 sterilizations occurred over the next seven years. Because there was still a great deal of doubt and uncertainty regarding the laws, sterilizations occurred at a relatively slow rate up until 1921. With the passage of new laws and a new widespread acceptance, sterilizations began to increase rapidly until 1950.[citation needed] The rate of sterilization decreased steadily until 1961, when they ceased altogether. The rate of sterilizations per 100,000 residents per year during the peak period of sterilizations, in the mid 1930s, was about 10. Early on, most of Kansas' forced sterilizations took place in the State Hospital in Topeka.
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Topeka State Hospital
The Topeka State Hospital (formerly the Topeka Insane Asylum) was a publicly funded institution for the care and treatment of the mentally ill in Topeka, Kansas. It was in operation from 1872 to 1997. Located at 2700 W 6th Street, the hospital opened in 1879, after the Osawatomie State Hospital, once thought to be sufficient, became overcrowded with mentally-ill patients.
The first buildings in both Topeka and Osawatomie were designed by John G. Haskell who was among the architects of the Kansas State Capitol, and the hospital was designed in according to the Kirkbride Plan.
As of 2010, the majority of the hospital had been demolished. In June 2010, the center building was demolished.
In 1872, the hospital started operations.
Boston Corbett, who shot John Wilkes Booth in response to assassination of Abraham Lincoln, was committed here after being declared insane in 1887. Corbett escaped the asylum in 1888.
By the early 1900s, there were rumors of patients being abused, neglected, or raped. Patients were often left confined or chained for long periods of time. In the 1940s, reforms took place at the hospital. In 1951, the hospital received further criticism for treatment of patients when it was discovered that patient John Crabb, a fifty-nine-year-old immigrant from Denmark, was not clinically insane, and had been wrongfully incarcerated at the hospital.
In 1913, the Kansas legislature passed the first sterilization law in the state. In 1917, in an attempt to make the process of the law easier, a second law was passed, which eliminated some of the work for the institutions. The 1913 law was directed at "habitual criminals, idiots, epileptics, imbeciles, and insane". The 1917 law targeted the same groups, but eliminated the courts' approval from the decision.
After the passage of the sterilization law in 1913, 54 sterilizations occurred over the next seven years. Because there was still a great deal of doubt and uncertainty regarding the laws, sterilizations occurred at a relatively slow rate up until 1921. With the passage of new laws and a new widespread acceptance, sterilizations began to increase rapidly until 1950.[citation needed] The rate of sterilization decreased steadily until 1961, when they ceased altogether. The rate of sterilizations per 100,000 residents per year during the peak period of sterilizations, in the mid 1930s, was about 10. Early on, most of Kansas' forced sterilizations took place in the State Hospital in Topeka.