Institutions for persons with disabilities are like a prison.

[Mercury]

Anyone who has been in an institution, including for persons with disabilities, will know that the place is exactly like a prison. No freedoms of any kind, you eat only what they serve you or you don't eat at all, no going loose in the community, many have no outdoor activities at all, mingling, especially between males and females, is forbidden, phone calls are forbidden, the regime is heavily structured, you wake up when they tell you, you go to bed when they tell you. To send anyone with a disability or handicap to an institution is like sending them even to a place like Pelican Bay State Prison, Sing-Sing, or even Alcatraz.

Sadly, there are countries out there that put all their people with disabilities and handicaps in those prisonlike places, especially when their parents grow old and weak and can no longer care for them anymore, or even when the disabled's parents pass away. They even institutionalize handicapped people that are capable of living in an apartment, especially apartments like in the United States which are subsidized by HUD and/or Section 8 where they pay only a third of their income in rent and the Government pays the rest of their rent.

Brazil still institutionalizes it's disabled/handicapped population, and so do at least several countries in Latin America.

Most countries in the Middle East and parts of Asia and Africa institutionalize their handicapped populations.