In July, President Donald Trump released an executive order titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” in which he suggests using civil commitment as a way to address homelessness.
Gov. Kevin Stitt launched an encampment sweep initiative called Operation SAFE in September, which similarly suggests people facing homelessness camping on state property either be brought to a treatment or housing facility, or to jail.
Nick Southerland, an attorney with the Oklahoma Disability Law Center, said Trump’s order to restore civil commitment by reversing judicial precedents might refer to the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court Case Olmstead v L.C., which ruled unjustified segregation of persons with disabilities a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“This was a big case that ended up with a lot of institutions having a lot their population go and integrate into the community because they said, ‘well, look, you can treat these people in a less restrictive environment than a locked hospital or a locked group home where they never get to leave,’” he said.
Southerland also said the language of the executive order is concerning. It calls for the commitment of individuals with mental illness who pose risks to themselves or the public or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves.
“There’s a huge difference between someone who is in active crisis and somebody who is sleeping outside,” he said. “Someone could interpret this as, well anybody who lives outside can't care for themselves, just by definition.”
Southerland said when a person is detained on an emergency order of detention, they can be kept for up to five days awaiting a hearing. Unlike being arrested, there’s no way to post bond.
What the records show
At the Oklahoma Historical Society Research Library in Oklahoma City, researcher and registrar Veronica Redding flips through a box of files. She pulls out a collection of 34 admissions orders to Central State Hospital in Norman — today known as Griffin Memorial Hospital — from 1922.
While most of the orders show individuals petitioning for a relative to be committed, 11 show a county physician or sheriff petitioning to commit someone. These documents have notes like “no known relatives” or “no history could be obtained.”
“I don’t know if they were living on the streets or just vagrants at the time or what,” Redding said.
Redding was one of the researchers who put together a collections guide titled “Researching Disabilities in Oklahoma, 1890-1960” that was published in 2021. It includes paper records as well as archival audio, video, and photography.
Through these records, we can get a sense of what life was like at psychiatric hospitals like Central State. Some photos show bathrooms that offered no privacy, and others show patients enduring isolation in locked cells.
“Like all history, we just want to make sure — especially the horrible parts of history — that people see it, that they recognize what was going on and they realize it was wrong so it can never happen again,” Redding said.
Southerland said in a discussion about using civil commitment as a way to address homelessness, it’s important to remember poor conditions in mental health facilities aren’t a thing of the past. He pointed to allegations of abuse against patients at the Robert M. Greer Center in Enid from as recently as last year.
“It's not like if we just put everybody in institutions, they'll be much nicer now and everyone will be treated really well and it won't be like it was. It will be like it was. And so that's why it's important to only utilize civil commitment when there's no other option whatsoever,” he said.
As for the future of the Griffin Memorial Hospital, the Norman City Council has expressed interest in purchasing parts of the campus from the State Department of Mental Health to develop affordable housing.
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