The reason that LIBs closed most mental institutions in the 60’s & 70’s was that they feared being placed in them. Also the 1980s.. I remember when Reagan caught much of the blame for that, but the leftards conveniently forget the lobbying and lawsuits by the ACLU and other pressure groups to roll the institutions back. Their position was, "it's wrong to 'warehouse' them!"
We've exchanged the well-documented horrors of state-run mental institutions for a different set of less well-documented horrors faced by the mentally ill and their victims on the streets.