u/SimonGloom2

I found the documentary on Elan to be a bit subpar. The way Mike talked about it was far more in detail and the details were far more extreme. If you're interested in more of this stuff, I have a little bit.

Sugarcane (2024) is probably the best documentary about a Snake Pit I've seen. I don't want to spoil much as it has a shocking amount if detail that are usually destroyed forever. For the record, I refer to all these asylum type places as Snake Pits as they all have the same system of the inmates run the asylum, just like Elan.

Geraldo's Willowbrook coverage - Old news stuff from the 70s when Geraldo made his name exposing Snake Pits. This is probably the most graphic and extreme footage maybe ever filmed. Willowbrook also has numerous pieces, so I won't link them all.

Geraldo Willowbrook Video (Graphic)

I've lived near a couple of these places and I've considered doing a documentary on Central State Hospital which had the reputation of the worst in US history, at one time reported to hold about 30k inmates with less than 40 staff members. The closest city with that population was Atlanta. I warned people about the elections specifically because the policies have restarted this problem with prisons like Alligator Alcatraz. We don't know much about that yet, but it has a children's prison section and many of those children will never make it out alive.

(This part is lengthy since it was for my own unrealized documentary project) When I was a kid it was a joke every parent in Central Georgia said to kids when they were bad - "don't make me drop you off at the Milledgeville Insane Asylum." The reason this joke became common is that these Snake Pits were used as baby drop offs for unwanted babies and children. Most of the children that entered had no symptoms of mental illness or retardation, but they developed these symptoms while living there. They also had large furnaces there where many of the dead were thrown, and often live babies were thrown into the furnace as they couldn't care for the incoming unwanted babies. When mothers dropped off babies at fire stations or hospitals or baby drop offs, those places sent them to the asylum. Inmates who became trusted nurses in the ward would take them in boxes to the furnaces. Parents considered this the humane option to abortion because they thought somebody else took care of the baby, but they had no idea what really happened.

Here's one of the worst stories I've heard, and it's best to not be eating if reading this. According to a custodian at the asylum, the kids were fully unclothed and ridden with tapeworms. Since they were also hungry, the kids would follow any kid with tapeworms crawling out the booty hole. And if people don't think that's real, just take a look at the Geraldo footage. Those kids are malnourished, they have no medicine, parasites developed in poor food quality, and they go back to animal behavior not understanding what they are eating.

Here's a few photos that still exist from that asylum. It's really hard to get any information on this place for I guess the same reasons as Elan and the other asylums. Some corrupt people are still living, some corrupt families still have the money, a lot of people are willing to take action against people asking too many questions. Like Mike said, this is why word needs to spread about these places. It's not just the Troubled Teen stuff still going on. All of the 1920s Snake Pits are back.

https://preview.redd.it/3pt0tzobfnzg1.png?width=576&format=png&auto=webp&s=4e589f28dd4d95219c197dd891a2cc46ad1ad27a

https://preview.redd.it/9b9t9nedfnzg1.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=bd3bc1f802792508508e458c7c77fcb52188999e

https://preview.redd.it/ng8w086gfnzg1.png?width=350&format=png&auto=webp&s=ae267228037f5896f77ab3612466cd6cc58a90d2