Pennhurst State School and Hospital, often referred to as Pennhurst Asylum, was established in Spring City, Pennsylvania in 1908 as the Eastern Pennsylvania Institution for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic. Its original purpose was to segregate individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities often labeled as defective or unfit under the prevailing eugenics movement from mainstream society for care and, in some cases, labor. However, from its earliest years, the facility suffered from