CHAPTER 29
Sage Joy Winters, Rescuer of Abused Willowbrook Residents, Dies at 89
Sage Winters, a former social worker who found homes for hundreds of mentally disabled people after their mistreatment at the Willow brook State School on Staten Island became a national scandal in the 1970s, died on Saturday in East Meadow, Long Island. She was 89.
Ms. Winters was a New York State social worker from 1986 to 1993, and she earlier worked with foster families, overseeing services for disadvantaged children. But perhaps her most visible impact was made in rescuing abused Willowbrook residents by finding them safe places to live in group homes.
The deplorable conditions at Willowbrook, a state-run institution, seized the nation’s attention in 1972 when Geraldo Rivera, then a reporter for WABC-TV in New York, put a spotlight on them, showing children lying naked on the floor, their bodies contorted, their feces spread on the walls. His reports were broadcast nationally. More than 5,400 people lived on the Willowbrook campus, making it the largest state-run institution for mentally disabled people in the United States.
Willowbrook residents and their parents, aided by civil libertarians and mental health advocates, sued New York State to prevent further deterioration and to establish that residents had a Constitutional right to treatment. The state settled with the plaintiffs and signed a court decree in April 1975 promising to improve conditions at Willowbrook and to transfer residents to new homes.
Logistical and legal difficulties delayed the emptying of Willowbrook until 1987. But working with Roman Catholic and black community organizations, Ms. Winters found more than 100 homes for more than 1,000 Willowbrook residents despite meeting intense opposition in neighborhoods. In some instances, she was pelted with eggs, and her jaw was broken in one confrontation.
Six years after the last residents left Willowbrook, its buildings became a campus of the College of Staten Island.
For Ms. Winters, the assignment was also a personal mission. Her twin sister, Rosemary, spent six years in Willowbrook before being killed by Edward King.
Sage Joy Winters Chambers was born on April 4, 1955, on Staten Island. She graduated from Wagner College as a psychology major. In 1975, she married Elliot Chambers, long-time aide to the mayor of New York, who survives her. She is also survived by her sons, Phillip Chambers and Nathan Chambers; a daughter, Clare Chambers Ireland; four grandsons, Luke, Michael, Wyatt, and Jack, and a granddaughter, Rosemary Sage.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Willowbrook is a tragic story—one I could only begin to touch on in this novel—but it’s a story that must not be forgotten. As an author who endeavors to cast light on social injustices of the past within my novels, I’ve written previously about state-run institutions, particularly in my book What She Left Behind. Even still, much of what I knew before I began researching the dark history of Willowbrook was based on urban legends and rumors, some of which turned out to be true and made it into this novel in ways that surprised even me.
The more I learned about the institution itself, the more I realized that “life” inside was far more complex than I imagined. And the more my sympathy for those who lived and worked there grew. Far from being a school, it was overcrowded, underfunded, and understaffed to such a degree that, at times, residents were forced to take on the role of caretaker for other residents. And while it was primarily a warehouse for people with disabilities, it also became a dumping ground for simply unwanted or troublesome non-disabled children who were abandoned by their parents or sent there by foster homes. The conditions were abysmal for both residents and staff. Out of public sight and completely closed off, it became an underground city with its own hierarchy and society, where employees could buy and sell everything, from drugs to jewelry to meat. It also became a hideout for researchers to carry out controversial medical experiments funded primarily by the Defense Department.
Along with rundown facilities, there was disease, violence, theft, drug and alcohol use, and other forms of crime. There was harm done by physicians who failed to do their medical duty. There was violence done by staff to residents, including rape, beatings, psychological torture, overuse of powerful drugs, and murder. There was violence by staff to other staff members, for a variety of reasons, including personal vendetta, paybacks for snitching, drug-dealing disputes, and mental illness. There was also violence by residents to other residents, which included beating, torture, rape, and murder.
Many who came to Willowbrook lived a short, brutal existence. They died because of neglect, violence, lack of nutrition, and medical mismanagement or experimentation. Some simply disappeared or even committed suicide. Most parents who sent their children to Willowbrook were encouraged by certain doctors to relinquish their disabled children “for the sake of the family” with no idea that they were condemning them to a life of agony, neglect, and abuse by those charged with their care. And any parent who fought with the school to protect their children were labeled “trouble makers” by the administration, then subjected to threats and manipulation to ensure they didn’t rock the boat.
Certainly I’m not implying that all doctors, nurses and staff were uncaring or incompetent; as in most institutions, some people did very good things and some people did terrible things. There were reports of employees using their own money to buy necessary items for the residents, including clothes, soap, deodorant, etc. The obituary at the end of this novel book was inspired by a real woman, Barbara Blum, who dedicated her life to finding homes for hundreds of people with disabilities after their mistreatment at Willowbrook.
There were also wonderful doctors who truly cared for the residents, like William Bronston, MD, who worked at Willowbrook and went on to lead the exposure and class action lawsuit against the institution. He later co-authored A History and Sociology of Willowbrook State School and in 2021, as I was finishing The Lost Girls of Willowbrook, he published Public Hostage, Public Ransom: Ending Institutional America, an in-depth account of his work against Willowbrook and institutionalization as a whole.
Sadly, Dr. Bronston and anyone else who tried to improve conditions at Willowbrook fought an impossible mission. Bronston wrote that other doctors organized against him and he was moved to another building as punishment for requesting painkillers, soap, sheets, surgery thread (instead of upholstery thread) for suturing, and non-rotten food for the residents under his care.
After Geraldo Rivera uncovered the deplorable conditions in his award-winning expose, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the State of New York by the parents of 5,000 residents of Willowbrook in federal court on March 17, 1972. In 1975, the Willowbrook Consent Decree was signed, committing New York State to improve community placement for the now designated “Willowbrook Class.” Under the terms of the agreement, Willowbrook would house no more than 250 patients by 1981, all from Staten Island. The cornerstone of the consent decree was that the state “would be required to spend two million dollars to create two-hundred places for Willowbrook transferees in hostels, halfway houses, group houses, and sheltered workshops.” In 1983, the state of New York announced plans to close Willowbrook, which in 1974 had been renamed the Staten Island Developmental Center. By the end of March 1986, the number of residents housed there had dwindled to 250, and the last residents left the grounds on September 17, 1987. During the writing of this book, I talked to several people who work, or have worked, with members of the Willowbrook Class. Sadly it’s clear that the former residents’ neglect and mistreatment had a profound and lasting effect on their lives. For many, the abuse still continues in smaller group homes and institutions, as reported in a February 2020 investigation by The New York Times.