Nowhere To Go But Inside
Fairview Training Center
Could you imagine being admitted into a mental health facility while truly being sane?
So that you could take care of another person because the facility is short staffed...
The conditions at this facility were awful; abuse, grim, torture, experiments, underground tunnels to secretly transport people...
People who were known as inmates.
Crazy seems like the wrong word to use, but so fitting at the same time.
This place does not tell a tale of happiness, of helping, of peace.
Fairview Training Center was opened and instantly became a living nightmare for its residents.
This room was the laundry facility, where inmates were forced to work, dealing with blood, feces, and who knows what else on the daily.
Do you think they had proper means of handling this toxic material?
Highly unlikely.
Some lived in cottages on this large plot of land, a few of these buildings still stand today.
The city has taken great measures to demolish most of the buildings.
The city has plans to use the remaining buildings and saved pieces from the others to create a museum/public park space.
Yes, there is a lot of controversy about this
If being an adult while housed here wasn't horrible enough, children were admitted.
When the facility first opened they didn't house anyone under 5, a few years later that rule was revoked.
This place was home to predators, employed predators; what a traumatizing environment to be in.
It is documented that residents had STDs, were falling pregnant; background checks for staff members were not required.
Fueling the negative actions of staff due to such easy access to vulnerable individuals.
I'm aware the details of such a location are tragic, and there are plenty more to be read on the internet.
But this is a real place, where real humans committed unspeakable acts to other humans.
I was told a story about a woman who could only have her room white because she was tortured and tested upon in rooms that were painted bright colors.
This was unknown to her caregiving after being released from Fairview Training Center.
The caregiver thought it would be a nice gesture to paint her room purple while she was away.
Upon returning the woman became violent towards her caregiver, shouting obscenities and making remarks about the new purple walls.
The walls were immediately painted white and the woman thanked the caregiver for her lovely white walls.
This link will take you to a few other photos taken by me at Fairview.
This link is a good read for more details on this location. You can also view photos of the other buildings (I didn't get to see a lot of these before being demolished.)
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Minnowbooster: White listed