Closing
Pete Wilson, then-governor of California, announced in January 1996 plans to close down the hospital by July 1997, citing low patient numbers and rising costs per patient. Various members of the community, family members of patients, and employees of Camarillo made several last-ditch efforts to keep the hospital open, arguing in part that current patients were already accustomed to the facility and questioned where they would go. Some tried to get mentally ill criminals placed in Camarillo in an effort to save it, a proposal that had come up several times before, but again community members were concerned of the risk of criminals escaping into the community. Governor Wilson ended up standing his ground and the hospital closed down in late June 1997, with the patients and research facilities moved to other locations.
Read more about this topic: Camarillo State Mental Hospital
Famous quotes containing the word closing:
“Our two eyes do not make our lot better; one serves us to see the good things, the other the evils of life. A lot of people have the bad habit of closing the first, and very few close the second.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)
“Although sleep pressed upon my closing eyelids, and the moon, on her horses, blushed in the middle of the sky, nevertheless I could not leave off watching your play; there was too much fire in your two voices.”
—Propertius Sextus (c. 50–16 B.C.)
“And if the stage-dark head rehearse
The fifth act of the closing night,
Why, cut it off, piece after piece,
And throw the tough cortex away....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)