ABSTRACT
Over the past 50 years the supply of inpatient psychiatric beds in the United States has largely vanished. In 1955, 560,000 patients were cared for in state psychiatric facilities; today less than one-tenth that number exists. Given the doubling of the U.S. population, this equates to a 95% reduction, bringing the per capita public psychiatric bed count to what it was in 1850-1914 per 100,000 individuals (Torrey et al. 2012). As state hospitals were downsized and closed, many individuals with chronic psychiatric disorders became homeless, frequenting hospital emergency services for care, food, and shelter. As deinstitutionalization progressed throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, individuals with serious mental disorders also began entering correctional facilities.
