In the 1970’s, I worked as a social worker for the State of Maine.  My case load consisted of 28 adult, aggressive, locked, male, mentally retarded, institutionalized residents.

 

The institution was under Federal court order to out-place the residents into more normal environments, such as group homes.

 

As I researched the backgrounds of some of these men, I discovered that several of them were not clinically mentally retarded -- they had normal range IQ’s.  So why were they there?

 

This institution was not only for the mentally retarded, but was occasionally used as society’s dumping ground for those whose behaviors were not criminal, just bizarre.  They had been placed in that institution when they were children, and they had been there for up to 50 years.

 

These residents had acquired what was then called “functional retardation.”  They had spent so much time with the truly retarded that they become “retarded” in almost every way.