Letchworth was described as an ideal center for the mentally challenged and praised by the state at first. Yet rumors such as the mistreatment of patients and horrific experimenting continued to circulate long after its closing. Former worker Dr. Little presented in an annual report in 1921 that there were three categories of "feeble-mindedness": the "moron" group, the "imbecile" group, and the "idiot" group. The last of these categories is the one that could not be trained, Dr. Little said, and so they should not be taken into Letchworth Village, because they were unable to "benefit the state" by doing the various jobs that were assigned to the male patients, included loading thousands of tons of coal into storage facilities, building roads, and farming acres of land. Many of the patients were young children. In 1921, the 13th Annual Report lists the number of patients admitted that year. Out of 506 people, 317 were between the ages of 5 and 16, and 11 were under the age of 5 years. Visitors observed that the children were malnourished and looked sick. The Letchworth staff claimed in the report that there was a scarcity of food, water, and other necessary supplies, but that was not the case. Children were often the subjects of testing and some of the cruelest neglect. Many of the children were able to comprehend learning but were not given the chance because they were thought of as "different." Patients were forced to dwell in cramped dormitories because the state would not complete the construction of more buildings. Barely ten years after being constructed, Letchworth's buildings were already overpopulated, 70 beds being crammed into the tiny dormitories. Nearly 1,200 patients were present during 1921. Overpopulation was one of the harshest conditions at Letchworth. By the 1950s, the Village was overflowing with 4,000 inhabitants. Quoting a spokesman for the State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, Corcoran confirmed that families abandoned their relatives there.
Geraldo Rivera investigation In 1972,
ABC News featured Letchworth Village in its piece "Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace". The documentary, by ABC New York's investigative reporter
Geraldo Rivera, looked at how intellectually disabled people, particularly children, were being treated in the
State of New York. United States Senator
Robert F. Kennedy previously had toured the Willowbrook facility in 1965 and called it a "snake pit." Kennedy was not allowed to take cameras into the buildings, however, so the average citizen had no idea how bad the conditions inside Willowbrook actually were. Kennedy's speeches about the conditions there, although impassioned, attracted little attention and resulted in little or no improvement in conditions at the facility. Rivera, on the other hand, arrived at Willowbrook with a full camera crew, and when the documentary was aired, there was widespread outrage at how the residents at Willowbrook, many of them children, were being mistreated. Although Rivera's documentary focused on the
Willowbrook State School on
Staten Island, Rivera also visited Letchworth Village, as well as facilities in
California. While he found that a great deal of progress had been made in the caring for, and training of, disabled people in California, he saw the situation in New York's facilities as backward and cruel. Rivera accompanied
Bronx congressman
Mario Biaggi to Letchworth Village, arriving two hours early because Rivera correctly suspected that the staff would be ordered to clean and dress the children before the camera crew arrived. Biaggi described the children there as being subjected to "[the] worst possible conditions I've ever seen in my life". The documentary showed the residents of Willowbrook and Letchworth Village, many of them children, living in awful, dirty and overcrowded conditions, with a lack of clothing, bathing, and attention to their most basic needs. The facilities were incredibly understaffed, and there was little or no actual schooling, training, or even simple activities to keep residents occupied. Rivera saw the overcrowding and neglect as a direct result of inadequate funding and the ignorant attitudes in wider society. The potential of individual patients was far from being realized. This confronting report helped lead to far-reaching reform of disability services throughout the United States.
Later reforms and attrition The attention, however, did little for the immediate needs of those living at Letchworth Village. The institution remained inadequately funded and managed, but public pressure led to reforms by the end of the 1970s. Funding levels were significantly raised focused mostly on those who worked in direct care. Various efforts to reduce overcrowding were underway by late 1978 and to increase privacy for individuals in the living areas. Simultaneously, the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities attempted to obtain group homes. Opposition was strong on the parts of many local residents - who attended Town Hall Meetings
to express their fears. Letchworth had already initiated learning programs that were designed to train individuals in the skills with hopes of making their transitions easier. Coupled with other, community-based options such as "Family Care" homes, the population of the Village steadily decreased throughout the '80s and '90s. Old-age-related attrition played a part. ==Closing==