Why are mental hospitals run like prisons?

Ableism specifically, with a sprinkling of capitalism and all of its other ills - sexism, racism, queerphobia, and so on, on top, just to wrap it up nicely.

So not only are disabled and mentally ill people framed by our society as harmful burdenous wastes of oxygen (like defiant women and PoC were, and often still are), but those there to "care" for us are also not trained, nor paid enough, to actually give a shit about how they treat us. By design.

They can achieve all the therapeutic benefits they seek, and significantly more (like actually accommodating our needs instead of forcing us to comply with theirs), if they treated their patience like the human beings that we are rather than the threat and burden they've been indoctrinated to see as us. Thing is, that way they won't get to abuse their power over vulnerable people, so the system is never going to change, because that's exactly what it's there for (any small exceptions to the rule just prove the rule, and this includes both more holistic and respectful settings and the actual individuals involved in "care" who aren't in it to feel superior to others, even subconsciously - both are exceedingly hard to come by).

In a society obsessed with hierarchy, it really isn't surprising that institutions that exist firmly if not exclusively to enforce a superior/inferior paradigm, by whatever means necessary, are the default.

I'll admit I've only skimmed these, but they're probably a good place to start if you want to take a deeper dive in to the topic:

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anarchist-communist-federation-mental-health-and-social-control?v=1634313529

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/pera-burn-down-the-psych-ward

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/class-war-federation-out-of-sight-out-of-mind

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/itay-kander-mh-anarchism

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/dr-bones-too-weird-to-live-the-case-for-the-individual-in-a-sick-woman-s-world