Bringing Back the Funny Farms

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
President Trump says, bring back the funny farms, because we
can't have people with serious mental illness.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Just walking around.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
Is he right?

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Should we be reopening this state insane asylums? Six one
seven two six six sixty eight sixty eight six one
seven two sixty six sixty eight sixty eight. This is
Sandy shack In for Jeff Coooner. And yes, yes, I
told you Jeff would be back today, hmm. And he

(00:30):
wanted me to relate to everybody his most sincere apologies
and wanted me to tell you what was going on,
and that is that Jeff's bus accident that he had
in Croatia was worse than we thought, and he's getting
great medical care, absolutely top notch medical care.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
But it looks like.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
He fractured a number of ribs in the accident, and
in order to keep him quiet so he can heal,
they've medicated the hell out of him. So he is
not in any condition to be before a microphone. He
is at home under the loving administrations of doctor Grace
and his family, and he is fast on his way

(01:14):
to recovery. But he wanted me to give you his
apologies and say if he could be.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
In front of the microphone.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
He would be, but it would not be anybody's benefit
to have an extremely medicated Jeff Coooner on the air,
So he will be fingers crossed, and it looks like
he's healing very quickly. He will be back with us
next Monday. So you have me for the rest of
the week. And I know I am a poor substitution

(01:43):
for Jeff Cooner, but I will do my best for you.
And thank you to everybody who has sent in their
kind wishes for his fast recovery. I can't tell you
how much he appreciates that. He really truly does. He's
very touched and thank you to everybody. And are you
sure it's the last time he's going to be in
a bust in Croatia.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
So he'll be back on Monday.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
But until then, let's talk about what's going on here.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
And I want to.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Get back to the funny farms. President Trump was speaking
to Reagan Reese, who is a reporter for The Daily Caller,
and they were doing an interview regarding the success of
the crackdown on crime in Washington, d C. Which led
to a question about whether he would be open to
the government reopening insane asylums to institutionalize mentally ill individuals.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
So there's no audio of this.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
It was a it was a you know, a verbal
it was a verbal print interview. And so, but there
is a transcript of what he said, and this is
the transcript when he was asked about reopening the insane asylums,
who said, yep, I would. Well, they used to have them,
and you never saw people like we had. You know,
they used to have them. And what happened is states

(03:01):
like New York and California that had them. New York
had a lot of them. They released them all into
society because they couldn't afford it. You know, it's massively expensive.
But we had they were all over New York. I
remember when I was growing up, Creedmore. They had a
place Creedmore. They had a lot of them in Bellevue
and they were closed by a certain governor. And I
remember when they did. It was a long time ago.

(03:21):
And I said, they didn't release these people, and they did.
They released them into society. And that's what you have.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
It's rough. It's a rough situation.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
And the reporter pressed President Trump on how soon he
might look into this option, and his response was is
at a big thing or people thinking about it. And
the reporter said yes, and he said, because you can't
have these people walking around. And the reporter asked, what

(03:52):
do you do with them? And he said, well, they're dangerous,
They're very dangerous, and they can live to be, you know,
eighty five years old. So President Trump is made these
comments after he made good on another campaign promise last month,
and that's when he signed the Ending Crime and Disorder
on America's Streets Executive Order, which aimed to restore public

(04:16):
order to cities and remove homeless individuals from the streets
by enforcing specific rules like no urban camping, no urban squatting,
no loitering. You know, there's a bunch of rules like that.
And according to the White House report, the number of
individuals living on the streets in the US on a
single night during the last year of the Biden administration

(04:38):
was over a quarter million, the highest ever recorded, and
according to the White House, the overwhelming majority of those
individuals were addicted to drugs and had a mental health condition,
or possibly both of those situations were occurring. So this
idea of opening the insane asylums is really part and

(05:03):
parcel of his broader approach to combating crime, and you
can't argue with his success so far. DC is now
close to being a crime free zone. And that statement
is according to DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, who said, a
big thumbs up to what's been happening in DC. Cut

(05:25):
number nine, please, Mike.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what
MPD has been able to do in this city. The
most significant thing that we are highlighting today is the

(05:54):
area of crime that was most troubling for us in
twenty twenty three. Now we have driven it down over
the last years. But for carjackings, the difference between this period,
this twenty day period of this federal surge and last
year represents a eighty seven percent reduction in carjackings in

(06:20):
Washington DC. We know that when carjackings go down, when
the use of gun goes down, when homicide or robbery
go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer. So this
surge has been important to us.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
So it has worked out really well for DC and
Mayor Bowser went even further yesterday when she issued an
executive order directing the Metropolitan Police Department to work and
cooperate with federal law enforcement indefinitely. It was in a
press release that released from her office. The press release

(06:58):
says the may the Mayor's order continues the work of
this Safe and Beautiful Emergency Operations Center in managing the
district's response to the Safe and Beautiful Task Force, which
was established by President Trump. And she posted on X today,
I issued Mayor's Order twenty twenty five ninety to provide

(07:19):
the pathway forward beyond the presidential emergency. So she's not
waiting for Congress to say sure they can stay. She's
saying I want them to stay. So this has been
a huge success. So along with the crime push, the
White House has also enacted a zero tolerance homelessness plan.
And this was not a new out of the blue

(07:42):
idea from President Trump during his presidential campaign, the last
one in twenty twenty four, he posted a short video
on the campaign website specifically outlining a problem with crazy
people on the street. Cut fifty one, please Mike.

Speaker 5 (08:03):
Our once great cities have become unlivable, unsanitary, nightmares surrendered
to the homeless, the drug addicted, and the violent and
dangerously deranged. We're making many suffer for the whims of
a deeply unwell few, and they are unwell. Indeed, the

(08:25):
homeless have no right to turn every park and sidewalk
into a place for them to squat and do drugs.
Americans should not have to step over piles of needles
and waste as they walk down a street a beautiful city,
or at least once beautiful city, because they've changed so
much over the last ten years. Our first consideration should

(08:48):
be the rights and safety of the hardworking, law abiding
citizens who make our society function.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
So that was the platform that he ran on, making
the streets one of them, making the streets safe again,
dealing with criminals, and dealing with the insane, the crazy
people that were wandering around ever since they closed the
State a Saint asylums many years ago. So that so
his plan when he when he was running for office included,

(09:17):
you know, the band, the thing we've already seen on
the executive order, the banning of the urban camping, and
returning people to mental institutions where they belong.

Speaker 5 (09:25):
Now.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
According to his critics at the time during the campaign,
people like NPR, you know, and Democrats and the left
say that the law and order approach has been tried
and it failed. It didn't work. That's what the naysayers
were saying during President Trump's campaign.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Failed.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Really just you know, just for the hell of it,
let's look back in the past couple of weeks. They
were saying law and order failed. Has the National Guard
failed to assist in law and order in DC? You know,
MPR was saying that can't work. You know, that's not

(10:08):
going to work. And now we have the exact example
that it did work.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
It has worked in.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
DC so much so that Di'm in the world Democrat
Mayor Bowser, a Trump hater, said yes, please, can I
have some more? I need you to stay. This is great,
this is working out well for us.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Does that give you.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
An added push to think, well, if he was right
about the crime and the National Guard helping with a crime,
maybe he's right about the insane asylums as well. Does
that make you more or less likely to support the
reopening of the insane asylums? And I'm going to make
that the pole question for today, which is sponsored by

(10:50):
Mario's Quality Roofing, Siding and Windows. You can take it
at the Kuner Report on x or wr KOs slash Kooner,
And the pole question is should we reopen state insane asylums?

Speaker 2 (11:04):
What do you think? And I'm gonna ask that question
to you too. Six one seven two six six sixty
eight sixty six one.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Seven two sixty six six eight six eight Sandy shack
In for Jeff Cooner here. Sometimes that feels like my
theme song, to be honest, they come and take me away.
President Trump wants to reopen the state insane asylums, he says,
or government in stane islams. He says, part of the
crime problem is we have crazy people walking around and

(11:33):
we have to get them off the streets.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Do you agree?

Speaker 1 (11:35):
The text number is seven zero four seven zero On
the text line six oh three says state hospitals involuntary commitment,
fewer homeless, less crime, safer society, God bless forty seven
speaking the truth.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
I think he may have.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Put his finger on something. There was a huge jump
in crime when they closed the state assane asylums, especially
here in Massachusetts. And here's the thing. Those people from
having a let's make no mistake, state insane asylums were
not exactly you know, vacation resorts, but those people had
a roof over their head, they were fed, they were

(12:12):
cared for, they had medical attention, and now they're homeless,
they're on the streets and none of the above. So
were they better off under the state asylum system or
are they better off homeless getting into trouble, you know,
if they're crazy, you know, impacting people who aren't crazy
in a very negative fashion and referring to possible violence,

(12:35):
things of that nature. So it should we be reopening
the state asylums? Is this a reasonable, rational response to
humanitarian response to the crime issue and a positive step for,
let's face it, for the people who should be inhabiting

(12:58):
a state asylum system. Do you agree with President and
Trump here? Let's go to John in Maldon. John, welcome
to w r KO.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
How are you, sir?

Speaker 6 (13:07):
It's not a very good saying. You're doing a very
good job.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Thank you, Thank you very much.

Speaker 6 (13:13):
To backup, Jeff, that's good. Yeah, they should bring them back. Maybe,
you know, there's some really serious ones. I can understand.
There's some that could probably be okay out in the street,
not actually not in the street, but you know, not
not in.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
A hospital situation.

Speaker 6 (13:31):
Yeah, not an hospital situation, is right? You know, because
it's uncalled for. You know what the events that you
know over the years of get rid of them, Well.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
They thought they they The argument was at the time
John that they was a human, that they were not
humane places that they were, that there was they were.

Speaker 7 (13:52):
Just not uh.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Terrific to be in. And I understand that. I think
that's true of any hospitalized situation. You have to be
carefully monitored because it does lend itself to abuse if
you're not careful. But you know, with oversight, I think
you can you can keep a handle on that. And
then the other reason why they shut it down is

(14:16):
they were expensive, you know, the tax dollars at work.
So I guess one of the questions is President Trump
is putting out there that it is worth the investment,
the tax dollar investment to keep these places open.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
Do you agree with that?

Speaker 6 (14:30):
Well? Why not? You know, but you been sort of
making like a feeling like a hospital situation to make
it look like a like to me, like when you
go to a group home, you know, something that's going
to be like home style type of deal. Maybe it

(14:51):
might relate to that more, who knows, you know, but
I can understand the way it used to be you know,
the hospital like type of deal and whatever. Yeah, is
that you know it isn't just didn't seem right for them.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, I think there's different I think there's different levels.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
John.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
I think which is what I think you're pointing out,
is that you know, you have you have the for
the highly criminally insane and dangerous people there you need
a hospital situation, a lockdown situation. But for people who
might be helped with medication in a less structured environment
but still has something there, independent living situation, halfway house

(15:33):
almost kind of situations might be more appropriate, all part
of the same program.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
I agree with you.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
I think I think it's not a one size fits
all situation, and I don't think that President Trump is
intimating that it is. I think he's saying, we need
to start re establishing these state sponsored systems to get
the crazy people for lack of for lack of a
better word, off the street, because they hurt themselves and

(16:02):
they hurt others, and this is one of the big
steps in cleaning up our streets and making them safe again.
Thank you so much for the call, John, I appreciate
it very much. Let's talk to Dave in Revere. Dave,
Welcome to WRKO.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
How are you, Dave.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
It's a beautiful day at the beach. The sun's rising,
sun shining. Oh nice, Sandy.

Speaker 6 (16:24):
I'll telly you.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
I know all about the state institutions here in Massachusetts.
The thing is, and I've seen this for myself during
the days when the state institutions will open up in Walsham,
they abused a lot of the patients that were mentally ill.
I mean I've seen it.

Speaker 6 (16:43):
I seen it, you know, right in front of me.

Speaker 8 (16:46):
I've seen it.

Speaker 7 (16:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:49):
If they do open up the institutions, they need to
get professional people in there, not thugs. I just want
to abuse people who know that they can't really think
for themselves.

Speaker 9 (17:01):
Yeah, seeing me, I see.

Speaker 10 (17:03):
A lot of them when I'm actually going to places
that I have to go to for my medicals. Some
of them are really good as far as the programs
they have for them.

Speaker 6 (17:15):
But as you're.

Speaker 10 (17:16):
Saying, we don't have enough and they should open them
up to where they be educated somehow to perform things
even though they're slower than other.

Speaker 6 (17:24):
It's like, uh, for instance, people who have autism and
stuff like.

Speaker 10 (17:30):
That, they consider those, you know, handicap of medical but
getting some type of some type of professional.

Speaker 6 (17:38):
Helps so they get you know, trying to think for themselves.
I guess, you know, want to put it that way.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
Well, I think there are all sorts of programs that
can benefit people of who have mental illness without a doubt,
but I think the first step is to identify them
and have options, more options than we have now. And
one of those options, according to President Trump, is an

(18:05):
insane asylum. Is to bring back the serious warded insane
asylum because the the criminally insane who are on the
streets are creating havoc and creating very dangerous situations for
everybody themselves included. And so one part of his answer is,
let's spend the money to reopen the state asylums. And

(18:27):
I understand you know you've witnessed abuse at them, and
that is one of the reasons why they closed. But
don't you think with a little help in regard to
like you said, hiring the right people with oversight, that
it's worth opening them again.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
And it's worth the tax dollars.

Speaker 6 (18:48):
Would be worth the tax dollar saving. I mean as
far as the criminally insane and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
That's why they have Bridgewater State Hospital, and you and
I both know they don't send just you know, just
mentally people there. They send the criminally insane there. And
it's a lot of criminally insane people in Bridge WATA
as we speak. So yeah, keep that down on the
other side and keep it in the middle of the

(19:15):
woods like they have it now. Maybe open up a
few more because we definitely don't have enough of.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Thom Yeah, I agree with you, Dave.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
I think it's worth the tax dollars to investigate.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
And it's not.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
You know, it's not a perfect situation, I think, but
I think it could be a lot better than it
used to be, and I think it absolutely deserves to
be investigated. Thank you so much for the call, Dave,
I appreciate it. We're talking about President Trump's suggestion that
we reopen state insane asylums to take care of the

(19:50):
crazy people who are wandering around the streets.

Speaker 7 (19:54):
Now.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
Naysayers who don't like this plan say it's been decades
since most states defunded mental hospitals and ended the practice
of putting the crazies and the homeless crazies in there,
and there are legal questions around hospitalizing people indefinitely against
their will. Supreme Court ruled on the issue. I think,

(20:16):
like twenty years ago, thereabout saying, you know, you couldn't
do it, but there's always a way around. I think
these things under public safety exceptions. And President Trump is
not the first president to run on this kind of
public safety message. Richard Nixon campaigned on a pledge to
n street crime, but when he got into office, he

(20:38):
was stymied by Congress a little bit. So do you
support reopening the insane asylums the state in President Trump
said as part of his crime plan, And he thinks
it's a good idea to stop the criminally insane from
wandering around and hurting people as well as hurting themselves.
On the text line, which is seven zero four seven

(20:59):
zero six one seven, says Sandy, You're absolutely correct that
the mental health facilities not only should be reopened, but
more created. It really irks me when many say get
rid of cops and guns and bring in social workers
like they have some magical answer to the needs of
these people, without a solid plan to really help them
get through their addictions and homelessness. Housing has years of

(21:21):
waiting lists and addiction clinics only keep the drug drugged.
Reopening state institutions provided actual care and the ability to
have a real plan to work with their individual needs.
An investment needs to be made to improve these institutions
with the help of all other organizations cooperating with the
need and goal to for success before it becomes so

(21:43):
severe as it is now.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
I agree with that.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
I don't think that the previous asylums were having on
earth by any stretch of the imagination, but I believe
we know more now on several late levels. One on,
I think there's better methods to take care of the
criminally insane than there used to be twenty years ago.
I think that we also are more aware of the

(22:08):
issues and also more aware of what happens when you
let them out, because when they close the asylums, those people,
a lot of them had nowhere to go, and they
were dumped on the street. And crime has not gone up,
you know, violence has gone up. And I think it
behooves us to make an investment with our ohso precious
tax dollars and what some of that instead of maybe

(22:32):
into illegal immigration, in protecting illegal immigrants, how about reopening
our state asylums, putting money into those and better healthcare,
as the Texter says, better plans to help those people
moving forward. Don't you think that would be a better
use of the Rainy Day funds than you know, free

(22:56):
cell phones for immigrants?

Speaker 2 (22:59):
Just a thought. Let's go back to the calls six one,
seven two, six sixty eight sixty eight.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
Greg N. Weymouth, Welcome to w RKO. How are you, Greg?

Speaker 9 (23:09):
Good Sandy. You're doing a great job.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
Thank you. So do you think we should reopen the
state asylums?

Speaker 11 (23:15):
Yes?

Speaker 9 (23:16):
I do, and I think that you should combine them,
pair them with some sort of rehab programs to take
care of the ones that they're hooked on drugs. My
question is, you know, they're dispersing them from the cities
and they're just going to go somewhere else. They're going to,
you know, go to the suburbs or somewhere else. So

(23:37):
we can't just you know, push keep pushing them along
because you're just going to go somewhere else. So yeah,
we need to we need to do something like that.
And I think that you know, we close down USAID,
but you know, we know a lot of the money
from the USAID went to other countries. Why don't we
reopen us AID and make the money go to US

(23:59):
and the saint asylums and rehabs, you know, homes for
these people to get better.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
I think that's a brilliant suggestion.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
I think that would be a wonderful use of the
money that went to USAID, And it would be very
interesting to me to see. And you know, of course,
because this was President Trump's idea to open the insane
asylums that you know, the democratic faction is going to
be the democratic fashion is going to.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
Be no, no, we can't do it.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Ah, No, it's going to be the end of democracy
because for some reason everything is the end of democracy,
or it's going to be racist. I'm not sure which
one they're going to land on against this, but I
think they're going to land on one or the other.
I don't know how they would argue against using us
AID to aid the US.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
I really don't.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
I think that would be a brilliant use of the
money and benefit everybody. Benefit the people who are desperately
in need of care, and benefit the people who are
a to walk the streets because they don't want to
be assaulted or have to deal with somebody who is
you know, criminally insane.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
I think that's genius. Greg.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
I think that's a wonderful idea. I think you should
suggest it to your congressman. Oh wait, you're in Massachusetts,
which means you're congressman. No matter where you live, is
going to be a Democrat. What do you think the
response is you're going to get from your congressman if
you suggest that.

Speaker 6 (25:23):
I'll be lucky if I get one at all.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
Yeah. Well, you know, some of them are really good
at responding. It's just not the answer that you would expect.
That's that's or is necessarily reasonable and rational. But I
understand your the probabilities are that is correct. You probably

(25:45):
will not, but you never know. You never know. Thank
you so much, Greg for the call. I appreciate it
very much. Let's go to Larry and Leminster. Larry, welcome
to WRKO.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
How are you?

Speaker 11 (25:56):
Good morning, Sandy. While you're off the call, screener Mike,
when I said I grew up at the mentally deranged,
she thought I was making a joke. Okay, I grew
up in Belmont. Belmont now is very prestigious, very wealthy.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
My dad grew up in Belmont too. As a matter
of fact.

Speaker 11 (26:12):
Oh you did. Okay, So in the seventies and eighties,
what do we have? You had McLean Hospital was more
prestigious than Bellevue, but not well known. Yeah, she just
up the street from that, over the border in Waltham
you had the Fernal School for the mentally challenged kids.
Right up the street from there you had the Metropolitan

(26:33):
State Hospital for the criminally insane. So walking around Waveley
Square where I grew up, I just outside of there,
you had a dozen of them just wandering around aimlessly
talking to themselves as we were used to it. But
those were the most harmless ones. Mostly harm they did
was to themselves. They would usually use the entry line
to end things.

Speaker 7 (26:55):
Wow.

Speaker 11 (26:55):
And but yeah, they closed them all. Now that each
one had their own set of scandals. And but when
you think about most quasi government or government institutions, they're
all riddled with scandals throughout history, and a lot of
it is Uncle Sam was behind it. There was Uncle
Sam had done what's the word I'm with experiments on

(27:17):
those kids at the Fernal School. Big scandal in the
sixties and seventies. But with proper regulation, you know, and
a good attitude, good group of people, medical staff. They
should reopen them because think about all these shooters, you know,
all these incidents they had. You know, the famous line was,

(27:40):
you know the.

Speaker 8 (27:41):
FBI, they were on our radar.

Speaker 11 (27:44):
If we had the mental institutions we did back then,
they could have been institutionalized for their own good and
for the good of society. I don't think we would
have near as many of these shootings if one real
put a me in to take the restrictions off that
like Obama put in place where you can't report all

(28:06):
this stuff in schools and get to the core of
the problem.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
I think that is a.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
It's something that I hadn't even thought that you're thinking
like four steps I had, which where I had not
gone yet as a matter of fact.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
So I think that that's right. I think that.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
We're not dealing just with the crazy people that you
see on the street, which is how I was thinking
about this. You're dealing with people who have deep rooted problems.
What do you do with them when your family doesn't
have the wherewithal to pay for McLain Because McLain is
a hospital that's still open, a very well respected hospital,

(28:50):
but most of those patients are private care and you
know it costs money to stay at McLean people who
don't have those kinds to resources.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
Where do you go? Who do you turn to right now?

Speaker 1 (29:05):
It's nobody right now, it's out on the street. It's
maybe you go to an emergency room and they check
you out for addiction, but if you're not addicted, you're
and you're just crazy, they turn you right back out again.
You know, unless you try to hurt yourself or or
somebody else, they can hold you for a couple of days,
but that's about it unless you voluntarily commit yourself to

(29:26):
a hospital, and they're not looking to do that because
then their resources go to to taking care of you.
They generally just kind of turn your right back out again.
Unless you're you're threatening somebody with a knife in the
emergency room, they're not going to make an effort to
keep you there. So I think you bring a whole

(29:46):
new level of why we need state asylums to be reopened. Larry,
I really do. I think that's a I think that's
a great idea. Thank you so much. I appreciate it,
and thank you for the call. Six one six six
sixty eight sixty eight is number here. What do you
think thumbs up are thumbs down to reopening the state
asylum system insane asylum system. Now, it used to be

(30:09):
they were closed because they, as Larry pointed out and
other people pointed out, they were rife with scandals.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
There were a lot of issues. There were abuse.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
But don't you think we could do it better if
we reopened them. Now now we are more on guard
for what could possibly happen, And maybe you create.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
And within.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
The Health and Human Services Department, maybe there's going to
be a czar who oversees the state hospitals and make
sure that they hold certain levels to be.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
Kept up.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
It should we be spending our tax dollars on reopening
the state funny farms. This is Sandy Shack sitting in
for Jeff Cooner on the Kooner Report. President Trump says
reopened state insane asylums is necessary to clean the streets
of the criminally insane who quote should not be walking
around unquote. I tend to agree with him, but people

(31:14):
who don't like the idea say they were basically hotbeds
of abuse and we can't send people back there, to
which I respond, you think it's so much better on
the street where they don't know where their meals coming from,
where they're out in the elements where they are can
fall victim and pray to other criminally insane people. I'm

(31:38):
not sure I see that an insane asylum is state sponsored.
Insane asylum is worse than that. One and two. We
don't have to go back to the system we had.
We could possibly go back to, and I'm assuming that
President Trump is talking about going back to a better system.
Do you think this is a good use.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
For your tax dollars.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Let's talk to rich In Brockton. Rich Welcome to WRKO.
How are you.

Speaker 8 (32:05):
I'm doing fine, Thank you, Sandy.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
So are you behind opening the insane asylums.

Speaker 8 (32:11):
I'm definitely opening up mental hospitals. And I'll tell you
I've had to walk in this life. Unfortunately. I've had
parents that have dementia, I had kids that have mental illness,
and I'll tell you something. It's the same people. We
have to get over these words, but the same people
are responsible for what's happening, not the insane people, which

(32:32):
you really can't even say insane. They like dementia people.
Right now, we build courts, we build prisons, and we
treat the symptoms, not the cause. You know, if you
had a kid, Let's say he's seventeen years old and
all of a sudden, in the middle of the day,
he's like drunk and he's just out of his mind,
drunk doing stuff. You'd say, oh my god, you'd send
him to the hospital. They'd be doing all these scans.

(32:52):
They'd be trying to figure it out, and he'd have
a disease, and it's a it'd be a medical thing.
But when it becomes a mental illness, people don't look
at it that way. The same people don't. We're not
there yet. It's like alien technology. We can't comprehend. We
don't understand it. We're like computers. There's hardware and software.
If the software is messed up, we just say lock

(33:12):
them up. Say you know, funny vomb all that the
stigma is horrible, And I'll tell you something. Most of
this stuff does not show up in men until it's
like sixteen to twenty years old. And that's when they
leave their primary care pediatric physician. They go into school,
they go into the military, and what do you think happens?
They get lost. They don't get doctors because they're physically healthy.

(33:35):
You've got to get this stuff when they're young. In
the school. We all know, all the kids go to school.
If they took the money that they blew on the
immigration taking care of citizens from other countries, and we said,
wait a minute, let's take those hundreds of billions of
dollars and put it to our parents and our kids,
we wouldn't have this problem. Look at our population. You

(33:56):
get three hundred and fifty million times if by two percent,
lump percent, that's what's being born every year. So there's
literally thirty five thousand a year of new people being
born with mental health problems that we're just dis godden.
So over ten years, you know, you got a half
a million people. But these are our kids, these are

(34:17):
our parents, and we're just turning around and making fun
of it. Finny farm crazy people, criminally insane. How are
you going to get a kid? You know, figure about it.
Alzheimer's if they were walking around with all timers. Now,
of course, if you got all timers, you're probably in
their sixties and they have money and houses. So we
take that away and we yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
But there's there's early onset Alzheimer's as well.

Speaker 8 (34:40):
Oh there is matter of fact, it gets the front
of air. It used to be called that. Oh no,
I know that, we oh yeah, so that we don't
look at it as a real medical thing, a medical hospital.
Like if you win and right now you were a
kid and he was in pain and is turning over
and his gut was knowing you take the emergency room
and there's no problems in the emerency room. You tell
your parents, you go to work. All my kids in
the mimerne. But what happens if it's with their brain?

Speaker 1 (35:02):
Well, here's what you say, and I don't mean to
I'll give it back to you rich. But you know,
here's one of the things I think that's important along
the lines of what you're talking about, and that is
that we've discovered in the past twenty years or so,
more so than we knew before that a lot of
mental illness is actually has physical cause. Is some of
it is psychological, obviously, but some of it is literally

(35:25):
an imbalance that can be treated medically. And to your point,
if we focus more of trying to find a cause,
how many more people could be helped?

Speaker 8 (35:38):
A fact? You know something this is and I this
is real experience when you go to the courts right
now are pretty high. Up to these judges. They will
tell you we can't do anything until they commit a crime.
Then we have a system for this, because when you're
eighteen years old and nineteen years old, and I don't
know how many people out there have kids, but still

(35:59):
eighteen ninety teen years old. At eighteen years old, they
become their own people. And if they're acting all messed
up and you bring him to a hospital, they can
turn around and say I'm fine and they walk out.
And you can do sections a lot of little tricks
about section and then trying to get these calm and
red flags. But I'll tell you something, it doesn't work.
When I went through this, and I did go through it,

(36:20):
and it was eighteen years old. One month I left
McLean's and they wouldn't even talk to us as parents.
They said, no, we know the paperwork is with that
person and they are one hundred percent in charge of themselves.
And I'm like, oh my god, wait a minute, now,
if I went to any other place, So this is
what's happening, and it's us, as the sane people that

(36:43):
are letting this happen. And then we do make fun
of it. I know it's good for radio and talk
to talk about the funny farms, but you're not going
to get a young person to take care of his
mental health if you think he's acting cuckoo, and you
stop saying the insane asylums, which you don't even need asylum.
Asylum is something for foreign people coming in looking for asylums.
Insane asylums an outdated eighteenth century.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Okay, so put the.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
Name aside, put the funny farm, put the asylum aside.
You know state state mental hospitals that have lockdown units
in them for the criminally insane. Are you in favor
of putting tax dollars into opening and and and supporting those.

Speaker 8 (37:26):
Rich patient criminally insane? I mean no, they need help.
There's it's like cancer, you get skin cancer, you get
friend cancer exactly.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
So you can have you can have somebody who has schizophrenia,
you can have somebody who has some kind of electrolyte inbalance,
or who has you know, some kind of lithium h imbalance,
or has or a psychological issue that needs help that
we're talking. There's gradations of problems. But what about the
criminally insane who are literally beyond being helped and are

(37:57):
going to harm themselves and other people. There are those,
there are the people that you're talking about that can
be helped, and there are those who can't be And
so don't you need a place for both of those?

Speaker 8 (38:08):
You know, when you get to the point of criminally
in saying okay, that means someone went out there and
we already screwed it up. Yeah, we probably did it
fifteen years and the person went out and shot up
in myster schools. And if you look back at every
event in the news and you dig down to Google
and you keep breaking it down, eventually they're going to
say how much the parents tried to get the help
and how they would deny, but they skip it out

(38:30):
of all the media. Believe me, I spent way too
much time.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
I believe you rich, But that's not my question. My
question to you is I and I understand what you're saying,
and I completely agree with what you're saying. What I'm
saying to you is, okay, so there's nothing we can
do to retroactively go back and help that person. So
now we need to find a place for that person
to be because on the street does not help them
and does not help you or me either. So isn't

(38:55):
don't we need the state hospitals?

Speaker 5 (38:57):
No?

Speaker 1 (38:57):
I understand you don't want to call it an asylum, Fine,
pick another name. Don't we need the state hospitals so
that person can be someplace safe and so that we
can make sure they're safe and we're safe to.

Speaker 8 (39:08):
A place like mcclaan's has already been there and done it.
The state just screws things up. Okay, you need the
right doctors, the right history to write.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
So you say no. So, in other words, take yes, but.

Speaker 8 (39:19):
Not through state state.

Speaker 11 (39:21):
Well, that's the question.

Speaker 5 (39:22):
Though.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
The question isn't do we get more private hospitals? The
question is do we have state hospitals? That's the question
to that you're.

Speaker 8 (39:28):
Saying, how do you fund it?

Speaker 7 (39:31):
All right?

Speaker 8 (39:31):
Does it have to be run by the state of
federal government because they's going to be fraud and abuse?

Speaker 11 (39:35):
We know that.

Speaker 8 (39:35):
But if we we don't know.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
That because it's a different it's in a different administration
than it's run in the past. We know things are
different now, and how do we where do we get
the funding for it? Well, there's been a couple of
suggestions already this morning. One of which is, you know,
take the take the funding that we've been using for
illegal aliens and use it for the state hospital, or
take the funding from you said, I thought that was
a great idea. You say it has been closed down.

(39:59):
So instead of send aid abroad, let's send aid to
state hospitals and put the money into them. So, I mean,
you can't assume that there's going to be abuse when
it hasn't reopened yet. Was there abuse in the path? Absolutely,
and so now we know where the abuse comes from.
And don't we have an obligation now to put maybe

(40:20):
a different level of oversight onto these hospitals to protect people.
I think we have the ability to do that, and
I think you have an administration that's interested in doing
that now. And don't you think that that So I
don't think more private hospitals, which does require funding from people,
you have to find and I think there's more abuse
that could happen there when you're talking about a for

(40:43):
profit situation than you are for a state funded situation,
don't you think.

Speaker 8 (40:48):
And again, the door, like what Trump is saying, and
the doge type of all of the site is what
you need and whether it's okay federal law, state or private.
I mean, I'm beyond that, okay, and I do understand
for our abuse. But yes, the point is is they
need help. The kids need the help, and without a doubt.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
And President Trump is saying this is one way of
starting to help. He's not saying it's the only way.
He's not saying stop there. He's saying, this is something
we need to do to protect our streets so that
they're safe for people and to protect the crazy people both.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
So isn't this a good first step.

Speaker 8 (41:23):
The crazy people to protect that kid's okay? Because there's
somebody's kids that are rich, cheesy.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
I agree with you that there's somebody's kids. But when
I can't go back in time and help somebody who
didn't get the help they needed earlier, we're talking about
what exists now. And I agree with you that moving forward,
we need to help the kids. But that's not the
question that's on the table. Thank you so much for calling.
I appreciate it very much. The number is six one

(41:48):
seven two six six sixty eight sixty eight six one
seven two sixty six sixty eight sixty eight. When you
hear a call drop off, it means a line has
opened it for you. Our text number is set and
zero for seven zero.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
Let's see five O eight says Sandy.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
The asylums were closed before cameras were ubiquitous. Have cameras
everywhere and be remotely monitored by authorities and families within
hippo restrictions. I think that's great. I had not even
thought about that. I think that's a terrific idea. Indeed,
cameras are ubiquitous now and you can put cameras in
and I think, well, that doesn't get rid of abuse.

(42:26):
I think it certainly cuts down on it. I think
that's that's absolutely a wonderful idea. Six one seven says
reopening the asylums would certainly cut down on the calls
from Bill from Sudbury. Yes, well there's that. Maybe that's
why the demos are a little bit not supportive of
what's going on with the idea of the insane asylums,

(42:46):
because how many members of their party would end up there.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
Six one seven two sixty six sixty eight sixty eight.
Let's go to Aerin in danvers Erin. Welcome to WRKO.
How are you self handy? I'm sorry, I said good?
In yourself you know, I'm fine, Thank you for asking.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
Sorry you were eclipped at the beginning there. So what
do you think, Aaron, should we be reopening state asylums?

Speaker 12 (43:13):
Yes, M's of course is famous for the Danvers State
Hospital and so and I've been here my whole life
and what a lot of these facilities. And there is
one one group of people, that organization I should say,
called Elliott House that has purchased most of these homes
in and around the community and have moved a lot

(43:34):
of these patients or residents to the inter them. And
I am, i should say, unfortunately, because I've had some
bad instances, is the victim of having one moved in
next door to me. And it's been many, many years,
and I've seen lots of things happen. And in the

(43:55):
beginning it was just a launching pad. They're all better,
they're just going to get on their seat now and
they're going to move on. Well, that has changed, it's
changed a lot. We've gone from it was only going
to be women in the house and it's mixed now.
They have added on to this house next door to me,

(44:15):
and I live in a very nice area. But the houses,
you know, they put another full floor on the place,
so I think that's like fourteen rooms now, which was
never this way. I knew the family that lived in
the house next door to me because I grew up here,
and they have come and gone, and I have not
seen the transition. I have seen many things. Matter of fact,

(44:38):
it was only two nights ago. I was sitting in
my kitchen and one of the residents was yelling and screaming,
and it went on for an hour and a half.
First I thought it was some children and pain outside,
and finally I went outside and saw that it was
next door. So I wondered why they're supposed to be

(44:59):
a so worker there in the evening too, but no
one came out. I finally walked over to this person,
but I kept my business because I'm going to be honest,
as she kind of scared me and I asked her,
I said, you went pain, is there's something wrong? And
I got foul mouthed and told it up. Anyway, long

(45:20):
story short, I just turned around and went back home.
And it went on for a while longer, and I
just waited till the next morning, and I called one
of the social workers and she immediately said, well, why
didn't you call us? Why didn't you go? I said,
it's nine o'clock at night. And I'm surprised no one
else heard it, because the whole neighborhood heard it. It
was quiet, you could hear a pin drop outside except

(45:41):
for her yelling. And they said they were going to
address it, and I'm hoping they do. But transitioning and
buying all these homes and putting them because I understand
they had no place to put these people and they're
off the street. And I agree with that, and I
thought it was a good idea. This isn't going on
for twenty twenty five years from This is not something
that just happened. They've been next door to me since,

(46:04):
you know, a long time anyways, And I just I
don't see it transitioning. I don't see people coming in
there and leaving. They either go back. The ambulance is
here almost every night, The fire department is here every night.
Cruises are here every night. I can see. I'm sitting
in my kitchen and I see the red flashing lights.

(46:27):
Something else happened next tour. I see a lot of
them walking around. Of course, it looks like they're wrong.
Port of pandem and they're walking around in a daze,
and I know they're trying the best, and I fully
support that because I know that, you know, a lot
of the institutions we had weren't very good. But I
do see that there could be someplace that maybe we

(46:48):
do keep them there and let them transition from there
so that somebody sees that they're progressing. But when they
come out to these different homes and they're buying up
all these different homes in the city of to put
them in. Every time I see a house up the sale,
I know, I know exactly that this company, Elliott Community

(47:09):
is going to come in purchase it and move them
in there. And like I said, it's they're trying to stay.
And I'm not bad mostly the whole thing, but I
don't think it's the best thing that's happened to us
because I don't see this transition.

Speaker 13 (47:22):
I see people that just so you think these people
so you think these people Aaron are basically getting lost
between the cracks, basically that they're that they're just they're
too disparate at these.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
Homes everywhere, and that they are they don't get necessarily
the attention that they deserve. Because they're so spread out
all over the place, is that what you're saying, And.

Speaker 12 (47:45):
There wouldn't be that many people. I mean that can
banging on my door in the middle of the night.
They've walked in my backyard, which is a big, deep yard.
They've come in and they try to bump cigarettes from
my brother or it just and then on top of it,
you know, different things they don't go along with the
regular town as far as trash.

Speaker 8 (48:04):
So because they have.

Speaker 12 (48:05):
So many, you know, people, residents, they put a dumpster
and it's a giant dumpster at the end of my driveway.
So now I have to worry about rats or anything
else because who has a dumpster at the end of
their driveway that but's my driveway.

Speaker 8 (48:20):
You know.

Speaker 12 (48:20):
It's just there's a lot of things that people don't
realize when you move them into the neighborhoods. And like
you said, I've been very very cooperative with them because
I really truly feel for them.

Speaker 7 (48:31):
I do, but I.

Speaker 12 (48:32):
See a lot of things. They're losing what they initially
said they were therefore, and you know, it's.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
So I take it, Aaron.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
What you're saying is you agree with President Trump that
we need the state asylums to reopen because the independent
transition houses can't do the job all by themselves, and
that they're and they it's just too much for them.

Speaker 12 (48:56):
I totally agree. I would promise something to really different
than what we see next door. And I see people
that are just his zombies, and I'm like, you know,
it's good if I did it, because they told me
they're going to be getting jobs, they're going to be
moving on to society, and I thought, wow, this is great,
great launching pad. That's not what's happening. That's not what

(49:17):
I see anyway, and it's been a many many years
that I've seen it. So when you started this conversation
this morning, I say, I've never called in before, but.

Speaker 8 (49:26):
I got my two cents.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
Well, thank you so much, Aaron, thank you for and
thank you. It takes a little bit of courage to
call for the first time, So thank you so much.
I appreciate it, and I appreciate your call, and good
luck to you and your neighbors. And I think I
think you put your finger on something here, and that
is that while the independent living and the transition houses

(49:51):
are very useful parts of plans, they're not for everybody,
and they don't necessarily help everybody, and state asylums can
pick up the slack on that, and so that those
houses like the one next door to you can focus
on the people that it can really help, as opposed
to the people that it's just a band aid for.

(50:13):
And I think that's a very a very good point.
Thank you so much for the call, Aaron, I appreciate it.
Let's go to Robert in Maine. Robert, Welcome to w RKO.
How are you, sir.

Speaker 7 (50:25):
Ah SAEDDI can you hear me? Okay? I about the
speaker for it?

Speaker 2 (50:28):
I can hear you? Just fine?

Speaker 7 (50:30):
Oh good, okay, listen. Thanks for what you and Jeff
and your your very good staff do dressing problems like this.
And I've got a lot of stuff to add from
my experience having worked at a lot of these places.
But your callers are Jeff's right. You know, these are
the best callers in the world. They hit all the
right topics, and once again President Trump is right again.

(50:54):
And all that does is feed TDS. You know it really,
which incidentally, would be a nice stick to study it
some of these larger institutions, because I think that the
roots of tds go a lot further than just you know,
wanting to join a liberal group and feel good about
yourself because you're in a liberal group. I think they
go deeper than that. But be that as it may,

(51:14):
And Richard was right. You know, they used to call
schizophrenia dementia pre cops early dementia, and yeah, absolutely, And
so anyway, what I want to say briefly is that, yes,
I agree with President Trump once again, He's right. And
you know, these institutions when they were well run, and

(51:35):
by well run, I mean you know, they used to
have sisters or rabbis or ministers along with the medical
director who was actively involved, either a nurse or a
physician medical director, and they would they would be able
to run these places. I've worked in both types. I've
worked in the ones run by CEOs who have nbas

(51:55):
and I've worked in some that have been run by
more medically oriented people. And you know where this is going.
The ones that seem to provide the best care and
the least abuse were the ones run by the people
with clinical knowledge. But anyway, these things can do so
much more. Of these hospitals dead just sequester people and
keep them off the streets. They're places for research.

Speaker 6 (52:18):
You know.

Speaker 7 (52:18):
One of the first things you've got to do when
you've got somebody who has a medical illness, and a
lot of these psychiatric illnesses are medical, you have to
make a diagnosis. And the best way to make a
diagnosis is not being in an emergency department where the
poor resident or staff, physician and nurses are just going
nuts trying to take care of things heart attacks and
everything else. And they've met this person there sometimes for

(52:41):
weeks who's not getting a diagnosis, who I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (52:45):
I want you to hang on there.

Speaker 6 (52:46):
Robert