The article critiques a national trend where institutionalization is being rebranded as treatment for mental health. Proposals like Governor Kathy Hochul's push for expanded involuntary commitment in New York and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s wellness farms reflect a worrying return to confinement under the guise of care, particularly affecting marginalized populations. These policies threaten autonomy, erase community-based solutions, and perpetuate systemic control over disabled, racialized, and LGBTQIA+ individuals, highlighting a growing concern about the state's role in surveilling and detaining vulnerable communities.
Under Governor Hochulâs proposal, individuals could be detained due to perceived inability to meet basic needs, not imminent danger, expanding state power over marginalized groups.
The revival of institutionalization is framed as modern mental health care but reflects a trend towards increased surveillance and detention of vulnerable communities under the guise of treatment.
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