Willowbrook Survivors Recall Dark Days

One of the many highlights of the YAI Network's recent 31st Annual International Conference was when three former Willowbrook residents, who now receive residential services from YAI, thanked Geraldo Rivera for his efforts in exposing the horrors of of Willowbrook. Barbara, who today is 72, thanked Geraldo for "saving my life."


STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Building 32 was bad. But Building 5 was undeniably worse.
If you were a patient in Building 5, you risked burning to death in the shower. Or being tossed from your cold, metal bed onto the even colder floor in the middle of the night.
Three former patients from the long-shuttered Willowbrook State School recalled moments of horror during a reunion of sorts on April 26 at the Hilton New York, where they presented journalist Geraldo Rivera with a plaque for helping to uncover the deplorable conditions at the facility. Rivera's 1972 piece garnered national attention and led to reforms at Willowbrook, which was shut down in 1987.
The Advance began uncovering questionable practices at the institution, which was meant to treat children and adults with mental disabilities, in the mid-1960s.
"It was like a badly run kennel for humans," he said during a speech at an event sponsored by the YAI Network, a nonprofit that aids people with disabilities. "It was something that shook me to my core. It was something that affected me more deeply than anything has."