California State Law and the Creation of Lanterman
The legislative process towards establishing what became the Lanterman Development Center began in the early twentieth century, following the “Progressive revolution” of California’s Governor Hiram Johnson. A state institution in Sonoma County had existed since 1885.[1] The California state legislature studied what was then called “feeble-mindedness” during their 1915 session and this paved the way for a law designating a location, purpose, and allocation of funds for addressing the issue in the southern region of the state.[2] Assembly bill 602 was introduced on January 23, 1917 by Assemblyman Thomas L. Ambrose, representing the 66th Assembly District in Los Angeles County, with the stated purpose being to:
establish an institution for the care, training, confinement, discipline, and instruction of feeble-minded and epileptic persons and for the study of mental deficiency and related problems; to provide for commitment thereto, for the maintenance thereof, for the manufacture of certain articles for sale, and to make an appropriation therefor. [3]
The bill moved through various committee assignments during the winter and spring of 1917. In April 1917, amendments to the bill had expanded the purpose of the institution to include sterilization of individuals.[4]
The bill passed the assembly on April 14, 1917 (1641) and subsequently the state senate on April 27, 1917.[5] The final senate version gave the facility a name: Pacific Colony, and designated it as the institution serving the “counties of Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, and San Diego.” Language of the bill referred to the occupants of Pacific Colony as “inmates”.[6] Penalties were provided for falsely judging a person as “feeble-minded” and for both the escape or assisting in the escape of an inmate from the institution. [7]
A board of trustees appointed by the state governor oversaw the corporate entity of Pacific Colony pursuant to its bylaws. The trustees were to be compensated no more than $240.00 per year and were responsible for hiring a superintendent for the facility whom would have “charge, control, discipline, and training of inmates”. The superintendent would be paid a minimum of $300.00 per month.[8]
Among the immediate tasks before the initial board of trustees was the securing of a site to place the Pacific Colony, in which they were granted the assistance of the University of California. The university would lend expertise in soil analysis as such a study pertains to potential agriculture use and for recommending the suitability of building on the location.[9] The construction of buildings, purchase of equipment, processing of any donations or endowments, and creation of official forms for admission were also part of the trustee’s workload.[10]
The new law included a definition of “feeble-minded” which was the following:
- Those who are so mentally deficient that they are incapable of managing themselves and their affairs independently, with ordinary prudence, or of being taught to do so, and who require supervision, control, and care, for their own welfare, or for the welfare of others, or for the welfare of the community; or
- Those whose intelligence in the judgment of one or more psychologists, when they have been examined by such psychologist or psychologists making use of standardized psychological tests and whatever supplementary material may be available, will not develop beyond the level of the average child of twelve years.[11]
The law provided for a petition for admittance to Pacific Colony to be made by a parent or responsible family member of an individual or by a peace officer. A peace officer submitting the petition was required to give a two-day notice to the family of the person admitted. In either case, a person judged to be insane or a minor (under 21) with epilepsy were not eligible.[12] The law required an examination prior to admission and the petitioner (if a family member) was required to pay for the expenses of commitment.[13] In addition to the persons admitted to the hospital, those deemed to require temporary observation could also end up at the facility. All professional “witnesses” were to receive compensation.[14] There existed a system of exchange between the state hospital at Sonoma and while Pacific State did not treat mental patients, individuals from those hospitals could transfer.[15]
In keeping with the moral climate of the period, the law provided for the county sheriff to transport a committed person to the hospital or a family member at his or her own expense could do this with the following exception:
No such person, being a female, shall be taken to the said colony by any male person not her husband, father, brother, or son, without the attendance of some woman of good character and mature age.[16]
The initial patients of Pacific Colony were to be limited to “feeble-minded” individuals and adult epileptics, but provisions existed for the colony to receive persons of all ages later, including juveniles from the state schools at Whittier and Ventura.[17] In an optimistic vein, the law stated the object of the colony as the “care and training of its inmates as to render them more useful and happy, and tend to make them as nearly self-supporting as their level of intelligence may permit.”[18] The use of the term “inmates” belies this rosy purpose, making little distinction between a patient and a state prisoner. Underscoring this view, it was a misdemeanor for an inmate to escape or for anyone to assist in an escape attempt.[19]
The colony could fund some of its expenses through manufacture and sale of furniture and its proceeds put in an account overseen by the state treasurer. The law provided for a person discharged to have an examination and if recommended, undergo sterilization, a not surprising feature in a time of widespread practice of eugenics.[20] The sterilization provision later met with minor reservations from Dr. Fred C. Nelles, the superintendent of the Whittier State School. He noted:
so far as we know, the sterilization section of the Pacific Colony law is the first to recognize the importance of the clinical psychologist in this matter. This provision is eugenic and preventive, rather than aiming at the benefit to the individual, thus differing from some state laws … The importance of scientific research is recognized in the establishing act of the Pacific Colony … Possibly segregation in the long run would work to better practical advantage than wholesale sterilization.[21]
Governor William Stephens appointed the initial Board of Trustees under the provisions of the Pacific Colony Act. They were former state senator Newton W. Thompson, Mrs. J. Powers Flint, and Dr. Mary Roberts Coolidge. The appropriations allowed for purchasing the land and constructing buildings amounted to $250,000.[22] Dr. George L. Wallace became director in June 1918 while three sites remained under consideration for “Pacific Colony of Morons”,[23] the commonly accepted medical terminology of the day. Dr. Wallace arrived from Massachusetts to assist in the site selection in July.[24] Assemblyman Ambrose sponsored another bill appropriating money for the building of the colony at the Pomona/Spadra site, which passed in the spring of 1919.[25] Problems with securing an adequate water supply at the Spadra location delayed the final purchase,[26] but they were resolved and the deed transferred to the state for $175,000 in October 1919.
Nineteen patients transferred from the Sonoma State Home entered Pacific Colony at a site five miles from the final location on March 20, 1921. Water inadequacy continued to be an issue, which caused a closure on January 23, 1923. Reopening at the current site of Lanterman Developmental Center occurred on May 2, 1927. In 1953, a Pacific Electric bus served Pacific Colony.[27]
Pacific Colony was later renamed Pacific State Hospital. Its open campus-like layout is an example of architects Frederick Law Olmstead and John S. Butler’s “cottage plan” and the buildings constructed in the manner of Spanish Colonial Revival. A central figure in the early history of Pacific State Hospital was Dr. George Tarjan, who served as superintendent from 1947-1965. He was instrumental in moving the role of the institution from being a place of separation to one that emphasized treatment. Dr. Tarjan’s research work brought him to the attention of President Kennedy who named him Vice Chairman of the President’s Panel on Mental Retardation in 1961. These were the criteria to include Lanterman Development Center on the National Register of Historic Sites.[28]
The Lanterman Mental Retardation Services Act of 1969 was the catalyst in moving away from institutional care to a “community based system of services”. The Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Service Act of 1977 mandated that all persons served by the Department of Developmental Services have an Individual Program Plan to facilitate “their integration into the mainstream of society”. During the next two decades, former reliance on the large institutions began to wane with most facilities closing their doors in favor of the community center model.[29] Lanterman Developmental Center was among the last to remain operating until its closure began in 2010.