system
A chat on subreddit /r/NoStupidQuestions
human
To be fair mental asylums at the time were a fucking horror show
gpt
Which is sad, because originally, they were actually a really good option. They were designed to be open and airy, while the inhabitants would often do much of the work around the asylum, growing a garden and making their own food especially, to give them a level off accomplishment. And an some cases, it could be turned into a job on the outside. 

But then a law was passed that caused that to fall into the category of "free labor", so they weren't allowed to do it anymore. And taking that away was a huge blow to the whole system. 

There were other contributing factors to why institutions descended into such a shit show... Namely issues of funding, and poor management.