On the morning of February 21st, 1933, a brand-new structure opened on the grounds of the Ontario Hospital in Penetanguishene. It was known as the “Criminal Insane Building,” although its official name would be Oak Ridge. It was designed as a maximum-security forensic mental healthcare unit for criminally insane men – many of whom were psychopaths – and the attempts to treat them would famously prove to do just the opposite.
SHOW SOURCES & SUPPLEMENTALS
LSD in a coercive milieu therapy program, Elliot Barker, 1977
Reflections on the Oak Ridge Experiment with Mentally Disordered Offenders, 1965-1968, Richard Weisman, 1995
Oak Ridge Human Medical Experimentation Lawsuit Documents, Ontario Superior Court of Justice, 2017
Treatment of Adults and Juveniles with Psychopathy, Devon L. L. Polaschek & Jennifer L. Skeem, 2018