The Breakdown of Law and Order
Jon Swaine By Jon Swaine, New York
The Oregon State Hospital in Salem was used in the filming of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' Photo: RE
Copper canisters containing the ashes of 3,500 former patients and prison inmates, who died between the First World War and the 1970s, were discovered at Oregon State Hospital in Salem, USA.
The run down facility, which was built in 1883, provided the set for the 1975 Hollywood film, which starred Jack Nicholson and focused national attention on the treatment of mental health patients.
The stacked containers were stumbled upon by politicians who were touring the facility in 2004. They had been sitting neglected for so long that some had fused together.
Authorities have been able to identify all but four canisters of remains, and relatives of 120 those identified have come forward to claim their ashes.
Mimi Stang, 70, who found the remains of her uncle, who died in 1944, said the experience had been overwhelming.
"Here they are, still sitting on a shelf waiting for somebody to claim them," she said.
An online list of those identified has now been launched in an effort to reunite more living relatives with forgotten ancestors.
Peter Courtney, president of the Oregon state senate, said that 30 years after the film highlighted the plight of psychiatric patients, the discovery had helped secure approval of a new mental health hospital.
The crumbling state hospital – 40 per cent of which was unusable – was covered in toxic paint and asbestos and had a leaking roof. Piles of pigeon droppings and of outdated equipment had built up.
In 2008 government investigators discovered mice in patients' rooms and outbreaks of scabies, along with almost 400 cases of assaults between patients a year.
But last month the first patients moved into a brand new 620-bed institution. "These remains have done so much to bring us so far in such a short time in how we deal with mental health, Mr Courtney said.
Plans are in place for a memorial and permanent site for the remains that have not been claimed, which is expected to open next year.
"It's a never ending story," Mr Courtney said.
Feb. 4, 2011