Inspection at Czech psychiatric children's ward brings shocking facts to light.

An inspection by the health ministry at a psychiatric children's ward in the town of Bites has revealed gross malpractice: unnecessarily large amounts of tranquilizers to pacify distraught patients, injections being used as a form of punishment, children being placed in isolation and left there for much too long -even restrictions on taking a shower. As one of the inspectors put it "the place looked as if time had stood still for forty years and more"

Very, very disturbing. Perhaps equally disturbing is this quote from the president of the Czech Association for Mental Health:

I hope it is a shocking exception. But the problem is that there are no regular inspections made at psychiatric wards. There is no law or regulation which would make them compulsory.

Perhaps, to misquote Dostoevsky, the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its mental institutions.