Trump Considers Reopening 'Insane Asylums' in Crusade Against Crime
Source: MEDIAite
Sep 1st, 2025, 12:42 pm
President Donald Trump says he would consider reopening insane asylums as he expands his anti-crime crackdown. Trump made the suggestion in a Daily Caller interview with reporter Reagan Reese that dropped Monday.
When Reese floated the possibility of the federal government reopening insane asylums for those with serious mental illness, Trump admitted he was open to it.
Would you be open to the government reopening insane asylums for people with serious mental illness? Reese asked. Yeah I would, Trump replied. Well, they used to have them, and you never saw people like we had, you know, they used to have them, he added. And what happened is states like New York and California that had them, New York had a lot of them. They released them all into society because they couldnt afford it. You know, its massively expensive.
He added, But we had, they were all over New York. I remember when I was growing up, Creedmoor. They had a place, Creedmoor, they had a lot of them, Bellevue, and they were closed by a certain governor. And I remember when they did, it was a long time ago, and I said they didnt release these people? And they did. They released them into society, and thats what you have. Its a rough, its a rough situation.
Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/trump-considers-reopening-insane-asylums-in-crusade-against-crime/


Ocelot II
(127,229 posts)bluestarone
(20,293 posts)His whole administration.
Botany
(75,308 posts)He is so crazy that in just the past month or so he:
*. Talked about regrassing the parks in Washington D.C. because he knew more about
grass than anybody in the world. There is no such a thing as regrassing.
*. He was so out to lunch that the Canadian Prime Minister had to stop a press conference
with he and Krasnov because Krasnov started to talk about illegals coming to vote in our
elections but I wont let em.
*. Welcomed the man, Vlad Putin, to a U.S. Military Base with a red carpet the very same
man who was paying 100 K per American soldier the Taliban killed in Afghanistan.
*. And some gibberish about Roger Clemens getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame and
if not he or somebody was going to sue Major League Baseball even though getting into
the Hall of Fame is under the control of the Baseball Writers.
walkingman
(9,845 posts)CurtEastPoint
(19,660 posts)The reporter used it and of course if she's with the daily caller then that figures
Irish_Dem
(74,894 posts)With the advent of psych meds there is no longer a need for long term hospitalizations.
Of course RFK jr wants to change all that.
travelingthrulife
(3,268 posts)Prairie Gates
(6,281 posts)I've seen some right wing nuts reviving that term. Guess who will be the first into the asylums?
Lucky Luciano
(11,741 posts)highly mentally unstable people living in homelessness. Something like this probably is not all terrible, but I sure as fuck dont trust this regime with it. No doubt, they will start with the chronic homeless, followed by trans, then liberal activists, etc.
Ocelot II
(127,229 posts)with no support or outpatient care wasn't the answer, obviously. Trump wants to go back to the bad old days when mentally ill, chemically dependent and developmentally disabled people are locked up and warehoused so nobody has to see them or care for them except to feed them and keep them off the streets. That's the easy way out; really caring for people with serious mental disorders takes money and effort and Trump and the GOP don't want to bother with that.
MorbidButterflyTat
(3,683 posts)He just sounded like his usual delusional self to me.
Ocelot II
(127,229 posts)Hekate
(99,470 posts)MadameButterfly
(3,549 posts)He just wants things back the way they used to be and doesn't ever consider new information or why things have changed
Hekate
(99,470 posts)Just so you know: TL-DR
We went from having almost no visible homeless to having an ever increasing number. It was a stark contrast. Did I mention he promised a support structure that never really came about? Supervised group homes. Professionals to monitor meds and ensure they were taken.
That said, in the 1990s when I served on the County Affirmative Action Commission, we went through a series of interviews with department heads, including the Sheriff. By that time Id already read about the revolving door of mentally ill in the County jails in Los Angeles, our gigantic neighbor to the south, and had some questions.
First and foremost, since TrumpCo. is fixated on crime and severe punishment, I learned that the very great majority of offenses by the mentally ill were petty crime. Shoplifting food items was common. Yes, 7-11 franchisees need to be protected. But the behavior was so chronic and the jails so ill-equipped to deal with it, that a reasonable person might wonder if there were some other means of dealing with the problem. Law enforcement officers and prison guards have specific training, but it doesnt include higher-level Psychology classes.
Second, so many were homeless and without the means to gain shelter and keep it. If vagrancy is still a crime (have not checked lately) and they keep ending up in jail well again, jails are not designed to be homeless shelters.
Third a lot of the homeless turned out to be dual-diagnosis. They might have a drug or alcohol addiction as well. Jails are not built to deal with that either.
Fourth why would they turn to drugs or alcohol if they were receiving medication? Sometimes the meds are not available. Sometimes the meds have side-effects that make a person feel crappier. Some people (IF they are bi-polar) miss the high of their bipolar cycles (as a chronically depressed person myself, I think I can imagine why someone might want that back) . And finally, maybe the side-effects of alcohol or an addictive drug are not enough to deter a person from finding their own way of dealing with their demons. Its a free country! No one can make them take meds if they dont want to! They have the perfect freedom as an American to live and die under the freeway because Freedom.
In my own self defense, please do not ever imagine that I think all homeless are mentally ill. Plenty of people are in danger of falling through holes in what we laughably call the social safety net. There are just so many vulnerable Americans.
Finally, and from the heart: fuck Ronald Reagan forever.
Lucky Luciano
(11,741 posts)Hekate
(99,470 posts)MorbidButterflyTat
(3,683 posts)sakabatou
(45,300 posts)Irish_Dem
(74,894 posts)DBoon
(24,283 posts)Criticism of the regime was seen as a form of mental illness:
In the Brezhnev era a new disease was described: sluggish or creeping.
schizophrenia, the only symptom of which was the expression of politically
unacceptable views. Dissidents were treated with massive doses of psychoactive
drugs, which produced agonising side effects.
According to one former detainee, Viktor Fainberg, confining political
activists in a mental hospital not only punished the offenders, but also
discredited their ideas in the eyes of the Soviet public which, by and large,
has a rather intolerant attitude to mental illness. Even in mild cases
of dissent for instance, criticising the lack of safety precautions in
the workplace just placing the offenders name on the psychiatric register
was enough to ensure years of discrimination in employment, housing and
the educational prospects of the offenders children
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13217951-100-soviet-union-admits-to-abuses-of-psychiatry/
Just wait until they decide being a liberal is a psychiatric disease. Oh wait, aren't they already saying this?
Irish_Dem
(74,894 posts)That Russian professionals would label dissenters as mentally ill.
Now we may soon see the same thing here in the US.
greatauntoftriplets
(178,248 posts)Unit another court order bans that.
Irish_Dem
(74,894 posts)Today some of these illnesses are easily treated with medication.
bucolic_frolic
(52,410 posts)Psychiatrists assured everyone that medications would improve the lives of the afflicted.
Try reading a new book, "UnShrunk" to see how that turned out! Author is Laura Delano.
BumRushDaShow
(160,250 posts)
Wiz Imp
(7,212 posts)That there are tens of thousands of Californians with mental illness locked in prisons or living on the streets today cannot be blamed solely on decisions made in the 1960s.
There have been seven gubernatorial administrations since Reagan left office in 1975. Since Lanterman retired in 1978, hundreds of legislators have come and gone. But aftershocks continue from the seismic public policy shift that took place in California in 1967.
SSJVegeta
(1,478 posts)Might be a decent start.
Let's start with the reagan tax cuts and move from there.
ananda
(33,175 posts)Next we'll be hearing about torture devices.
Irish_Dem
(74,894 posts)No vaccines, no treatments, no healthcare.
This is one of the torture strategies.
MrWowWow
(1,234 posts)And wears a DNR T-Shirt
tanyev
(47,795 posts)multigraincracker
(36,293 posts)LudwigPastorius
(13,414 posts)...and society turned right around and released one into the Oval Office.
Bmoboy
(534 posts)Political opposition candidates get locked away "for their own good."
I can hear the ECT machines humming away.
electric_blue68
(23,890 posts)years.
Probably not enough, and some could be improved from reading what other people had to say. And some physch meds have such nasty side effects some people living w mental illness stop taking them. Then there are some people who don't take them period.
My dad suffered from several severe depressions, so I educated myself.
Fuck, drumph, and his cruel ideas!
sop
(16,048 posts)Once declared insane, It will be easier to incarcerate them without due process.
I'm betting he will have a lot of his Dem enemies list declared insane.
But it will also stigmatize a lot of people with mental illness all over again.
Wiz Imp
(7,212 posts)The law likely wouldnt allow it, given several U.S. Supreme Court decisions that raised the threshold for involuntary commitment, including OConnor v. Donaldson in 1975 and Addington v. Texas and Parham v. J.R. in 1979. "It would probably be impermissible to continue to hold someone who has been successfully treated with medication, unless it can be shown they will go off their meds once released," Vanderbilts Slobogin said.
Even if mass institutionalization were to return, its unlikely to reduce violence enough to outweigh the financial and societal costs, said Linda A. Teplin, vice chair for research in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine. Because the vast majority of people committed would be nonviolent, she said, it would neither be cost-effective for reducing crime nor beneficial for the health of the people who would be institutionalized.
"Substance use, inequality and lack of opportunity, and access to guns are the major drivers of violence," rather than mental illness in a vacuum, Cohen said. Blaming serious mental illness "is just a diversion tactic."
Brainfodder
(7,781 posts)If he does, I don't mind if he puts his name on them!
Joinfortmill
(18,940 posts)Prof. Toru Tanaka
(2,791 posts)Joinfortmill
(18,940 posts)MorbidButterflyTat
(3,683 posts)While simultaneously a criminal mastermind!!
bucolic_frolic
(52,410 posts)Rose-colored glasses with Nazi anti-glare glaze.
twodogsbarking
(15,819 posts)J_William_Ryan
(3,002 posts)Clearly this is an attack on transgender Americans most on the hateful, bigoted right consider to be mentally ill.
soldierant
(8,945 posts)greatauntoftriplets
(178,248 posts)Conditions reportedly were dismal in the Victorian-era buildings. Is TACO going to give Illinois the money to rebuild?
Prairie Gates
(6,281 posts)Fantastic.
topcelts
(22 posts)Reagan closed these facilities 1970s. It's a Republican thing. We don't need them now we need them. Will we be hiring a new breed of doctors. "Mengele anybody?" Master Race here we come
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(128,722 posts)Historic NY
(39,279 posts)around the country that once served that function. They would have to build them. Some places have secure facilities for the criminally insane but they are those adjudicated by the courts.
William Gustafson
(507 posts)How is he going to pay for any of these projects? We would be bankrupt by the beginning of the new year at this rate!!
MorbidButterflyTat
(3,683 posts)"When Reese floated the possibility of the federal government reopening insane asylums for those with 'serious mental illness,' *rump admitted he was open to it."
He "admitted" it?
This is so disingenuous. He considered it after it was suggested to him. He would probably consider any stupid thing anybody brings up to him. He doesn't know what the hell he's saying.
LeftInTX
(34,006 posts)Bread and Circuses
(1,155 posts)moniss
(8,085 posts)Danmel
(5,583 posts)Run by the New York State Office of Mental Health and NYC Health, respectively.
Creedmor is in Queens. He's just so profoundly stupid and lazy.
https://omh.ny.gov/omhweb/facilities/crpc/
BumRushDaShow
(160,250 posts)was that most of Creedmor's campus was pretty much dismantled and sold off but they maintain a building for the care of a couple hundred legacy psychiatric patients. And I believe Bellevue basically rebranded their psychiatric care away from the "asylum" model.
Danmel
(5,583 posts)Pilgrim State Psychiatric hospital is still open on long Island although much smaller than it was.
There is still a need for long term psychiatrist care, and institutional care is not inherently bad. But resources need to be provided and support services need to be in place.
BumRushDaShow
(160,250 posts)and used to be assigned cases in the psychiatric facilities here. She would sometimes tell us heartbreaking stories about what she saw. The one we had here was called "Byberry" (Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry).
https://hsp.org/philadelphia-state-hospital-byberry
It was brutal - not just the care but the environmental conditions (asbestos, etc) of the old buildings themselves (and of course the care methods were shifting), and it was finally announced that it would be closed in the late '80s. But due to the leftover population in there, it took several years to transfer them to other facilities (a bunch went to the closest facility at the time which was "Norristown State Hospital" ).
I remember driving by it before it closed when I was substitute teaching or traveling up to "the Far Northeast" (as that part of Philly was dubbed). They finally tore down the buildings by the mid-2000s and a developer came in to build an "active retirement" community on the large property.
Cloudhopper
(133 posts)eringer
(491 posts)We already have one. A good start. Its all white and its in DC.