The deinstitutionalization process began in the late 1950’s, early 1960’s. Facilities were financially liable for patients while they were committed, but were able to modify the burden to the federal government by discharging them. A lot of our society believes that the deinstitutionalization process was simply created because of the facilities’ inadequacy of treatment to their patients. Motivated by a concern for the civil rights of patients, deinstitutionalization focused on more rigorous standards for civil commitment and created practical safeguard processes, such as the right to treatment in the least preventive atmosphere (Watnik, 2001).
New York dealt with deinstitutionalization in the wrong ways from the beginning. For instance, New York was the only state prior to 1994 that had limitations specifically prohibiting outpatient commitment. In 1994, the legislation passed the Bellevue Pilot Program which was established to helping the deinstitutionalization process. In 1999, New York Governor George Pataki, created Kendra’s Law which was a law that was influenced by the increase rise of mentally unstable individuals hurting and killing other people randomly. Kendra’s Law allows particular individuals (such as family members) to petition the court to obtain an