Coalition to Stop Institutional Violence records

The Coalition to Stop Institutional Violence was founded in 1975 in Boston.  The group was a comprised of ex-mental patients, mental health workers, and prisoner rights groups.  The Coalition formed in response to the construction of a "special unit for violent women" from state mental hospitals and state prisons at Worcester State Hospital.  Through an extensive letter writing project the Coalition forced the Department of Mental Health to hold public hearings required by the Determination of Need process.  Due to numerous testimonies in opposition to the unit and documentation showing the unfeasibility of the unit, it did not receive funding and never opened.

In addition to their work against the Worcester Women's Unit, the Coalition to Stop Institutional Violence attended numerous public meetings and conducted letter writing projects against other "special units."  These projects included the Worcester Regional Adolescent Program, an Adult Psychiatric Unit and later a Pediatric Psychiatric Unit at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester and a "special unit for violent women" at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Framingham.  The group disbanded in 1988.