Madness in the Streets (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Virginia C. Armat, Rael Jean Isaac
- First Published: 1990
- Type of Work: Social history
- Time of Work: The 1970’s and 1980’s
- Setting: Mostly New York City
- Genres: Nonfiction, Social issues, History
- Subjects: Civil rights, 1970’s, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Homelessness or homeless people, Social reform, Politics, New York City, 1980’s, Mental illness, Mental institutions, hospitals or asylums, Psychiatry or psychiatrists
- Locales: New York, NY
According to Rael Jean Isaac and Virginia C. Armat, the shift in care for mentally handicapped patients during the last two decades has caused the patient’s right to receive treatment to be replaced by the patient’s right to refuse treatment. The result is that substantial numbers of people with varying degrees of eccentricity and derangement are living on the streets of the nation.
In 1985, Mayor Edward Koch of New York City ordered metropolitan police officers to remove such people from the streets when dangerously low winter temperatures threatened their survival. Court...
[The entire page is 1972 words long]
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