I spent 4 1/2 years at the Oregon State Hospital. It was very difficult. Many, many patients there for years actually have no mental illness and are being held in violation of state, federal, and constitutional law. Noone cares. Noone advocates for them. They are the forgotten people and have no rights. It is disgusting. And while some patients clearly need that hospital level of care because their illnesses are severe and persistent, a huge number--hundreds right at this very moment--are simply being warehoused and have no business being in any hospital of any kind.

State hospitals certainly have a role, in my opinion, in a good overall mental health system. But those with no oversight, such as Oregon's, are very likely to violate patients' rights with absolutely no recourse for the patients, who almost universally are poor and uneducated, with no resources. As I say, they simply disappear and are never heard from again. That's what happens in Oregon, supposedly this beacon of progressiveness. What a joke. It reminds me a lot of what happens in China or Russia. The systems are not dissimilar, in my opinion.