Governor Percival Baxter noted in 1925, the year Turcotte arrived at Pownal, that "735 feeble minded are now being cared for." He said the legislature's work to increase the capacity of the facility "must continue until practically every feeble minded person is in the State's care."
Many in Maine and elsewhere believed that the "feeble minded" were dangerous, likely to be criminals, and should not reproduce.
