The long and the short of it is that institutions were pretty damn bad back in the 70s which is what lead to states shutting them down. California bought into

The long and the short of it is that institutions were pretty damn bad back in the 70s which is what lead to states shutting them down. California bought into a community mental health model where municipalities would take responsibility for dealing with mental illness. Reagan bought into it too and turned it into an unfunded mandate. There've been a few efforts over the years to remedy the problem, but in general institutionalizing people and forcing them onto any sort of medication is very difficult to do in California.