Alaska: Group hopes for information on Alaskans sent to Morningside; Portland mental health facility housed 3,500 Alaskans prior to statehood By DAVE KIFFER - For more than half a century, the territory of Alaska had no facility to deal with mental illness or developmental disabilities.

Morningside Hospital promotional postcard from 1925
Portland, Oregon - Graphic courtesy wikipedia.org

As a result between 1904 and the early 1960s, Alaskan residents who needed such a facility were sent Outside, nearly all went to Morningside Hospital in Portland. At least 3,500 Alaskans ended up at Morningside and many lived out their days there, never seeing Alaska or their families again.

Morningside was founded in 1899 by Dr. Henry Waldo Coe. It was located on a nearly 50 acre parcel of land at the corner of SE Stark Street and 96th Avenue.

The facility went by several names in its early years, including “Dr. Coe's Nervous Sanitarium,” “Mindease,” “Mt. Tabor Sanitarium” and “Crystal Springs Sanitarium.”

In 1904, Dr. Coe was awarded a contract from the US Department of the Interior to care for mentally ill and handicapped patients from Alaska. That allowed him to expand his facility and he did so by purchasing buildings from the Lewis and Clark Centenary Exposition and moving them to the Morningside site. The Alaskan patients, approximately 3,500 of them, would make up the majority of Morningside's patients over the next five decades.

Coe died in 1927 and was succeeded at the hospital by his son, Wayne Coe.

Originally the parcel included both the hospital and surrounding farm land, but after World War II most of the farm land was converted into subdivision housing.

In 1955, Oregon U.S. Rep. Edith Green moved to transfer care of Alaskan patients back to Alaska. She accused the Coe family of financial impropriety in running the facility and the General Accounting Office opened an investigation. Also among Green's charges, according to a 1956 article in the Oregonian newspaper was that Coe used patients for labor on the home and covered it up as "occupational therapy."

Morningside denied the claims and ultimately no charges were filed. Morningside was fully reaccredited by 1957, but by then Alaska was moving toward statehood and was making plans for dealing with the mentally ill and handicapped in the state. As the Alaskans were transferred north, the Coe family attempted to find other sources of clients and began taking local people.

The door to transferring Alaskans back home was further opened by Public Law 84-830, known as the Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act of 1956. It was an Act of Congress passed to improve mental health care in the United States territory of Alaska. (Editor's Note: The bill became the focus of a major political controversy at the time after opponents nicknamed The Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act of 1956 the "Siberia Bill" and denounced it as being part of a communist plot to hospitalize and brainwash Americans. The debates over this bill were a major factor leading to the deinstitutionalization of the physically & mentally challenged throughout the United States in the 1960s.) - More...
Thursday AM - February 11, 2016

Alaska: Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Occur with Disturbing Frequency; Few Assaults are Reported to Police According to New Report By MARY KAUFFMAN - The Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center has just released its final report for the Alaska Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Case Processing Project. The statistics highlighted in the study report that while domestic violence and sexual assault are crimes that occur with disturbing frequency, relatively few domestic violence or sexual assault victimizations are reported to police.

The study also supported what many domestic violence and sexual assault professionals already know, these are not issues of “stranger danger,” which is what children and youth until recent years were being prepared against. According to the study, someone is much more likely to be assaulted by someone they know and trust than by a stranger with stranger sexual assault accounting for less than 5% of Alaska State Troopers’ sexual assault cases.

Because the evaluation of criminal justice processes from a bird’s eye perspective has been difficult for law enforcement and prosecution agencies to undertake, in 2013, the Alaska Department of Public Safety and the Alaska Department of Law partnered with the Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center housed at the University of Alaska Anchorage to do just that.

The Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics to complete the Alaska Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Case Processing Project: Descriptive Analysis of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Incidents Closed by the Alaska State Troopers: 2008 – 2011. According to the Alaska Department of Public Safety, their intention was to collaborate with the university to learn from the results from the study and to step towards data-driven policymaking to maximize the use of very limited departmental resources. - More...
Thursday AM - February 11, 2016

Alaska: State of the Judiciary Address Praised as Bold & Inspirational - Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Craig Stowers gave the annual State of the Judiciary Address yesterday to the members of the Alaska House and Senate. In his speech, Chief Justice Stowers outlined, in great detail, how the Alaska Court system is working to streamline services and save money as Alaska is facing huge fiscal challenges. He also called on the members of the House and Senate to work together and make the hard decisions that are needed to allow Alaska to weather the current fiscal storm. Representative Max Gruenberg (D-Anchorage), a member of the House Finance Committee’s Courts Budget Subcommittee, praised Justice Stowers’ speech as an example for lawmakers to emulate as they consider how to address the nearly $4 billion budget deficit.

“Chief Justice Stowers’ called upon the Alaska Legislature to make bold and difficult decisions to meet the current economic crisis, not as lawmakers, but as statesmen,” said Rep. Gruenberg. “The most important message he gave us was that now is the time for lawmakers to have the courage to make the difficult decisions, no matter if those decisions are unpopular.”

Wednesday’s State of the State Address was the first such address for Chief Justice Stowers since being elected Chief Justice by the other four members of the Alaska Supreme Court. He acknowledged that the budget shortfall in Alaska warrants cuts in funding for the Alaska Court System but stressed the need to protect the core mission of the Court System, which includes providing a fair and impartial forum for the resolution of disputes, making the justice system accessible to the public, and providing the highest quality of service possible to the people of Alaska. - More...
Thursday AM - February 11, 2016

Alaska: Legislation Introduced To Prevent Accidental Trapping of Pets and Hikers - In an effort to reduce conflicts between trappers and recreational users of public lands in Alaska, Representative Andy Josephson (D-Anchorage) has introduced HB 306. The bill seeks to prohibit trapping within 200 feet of public trails and facilities.

“In no way do I want to limit the lawful activities of responsible trappers in Alaska, but it seems wrong to ask trail users to be constantly on the lookout for dangerous traps within just a stone’s throw of trails and recreation areas,” said Rep. Josephson. “This bill puts in place reasonable protections to reduce conflicts, which will be good for trappers and recreational users across the state. This is especially true in the Mat-Su, Kenai Peninsula, and Southeast regions where pets being caught in traps has been an issue for years.”

HB 306 would prohibit a person from setting a trap or snare within 200 feet of public trails, campsites, recreational beaches, rest stops, and other public facilities. Violations would be considered class B misdemeanors and come with specific fines that are detailed in the legislation. - More...
Thursday AM - February 11, 2016