THE "OPEN DOOR" POLICY IN MENTAL HOSPITALS VS. THE "CLOSED DOOR" POLICY IN THE COMMUNITY

Abstract

The open door policy in mental hospitals and prisons has been advocated and practiced in the United States long before it became a vogue in Great Britain and was re-introduced across the Atlantic Ocean. Dr. William A. White said in the course of acting as Moderator of the Round Table Conference on The Application of the Group Method to the Classification of Prisoners held during the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association on May 31, 1932 in Philadelphia: "I remember visiting, a few years ago, a prison in the East with about one thousand inmates. It had no walls and only a few cells. The dormitory system, similar to that in schools, was in use. On the first occasion I found no men in the solitary cells and on the second occasion only one. The men were free to conduct themselves and the warden was clever enough to handle the men so that they felt comfortable. They did not run away nor did they commit acts which would have made the running of the prison impossible." . . ."Some years ago Congress made an appropriation for a prison in Washington, D.C. . . . A prison was erected without walls and with no cells. It still functions successfully."