Why did Samuel Gridley Howe criticize large public institutions for disabled people in his later years?

In his later years, Samuel Gridley Howe criticized the concentration of disabled people in large, publicly operated institutions because he believed these centralized facilities sequestered individuals away from their families and communities, often leading to neglect and a lack of public scrutiny.12

To address these concerns, Howe advocated for a more humane and integrated approach to care. As part of this shift in his philosophy, he began to champion the practice of boarding pupils from his school in the homes of ordinary citizens, rather than keeping them confined within large institutional settings.1