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 Why looking this chart my thoughts is "WTF happen in 1971"... Doesn't make sense, but still. 
 https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/gold-convertibility-ends

Among other things. The American war in Vietnam was also raging, and Nixon's war on Poverty was going as well -- this last matter likely resulting in some specific legislation that saw the drastic shift.

And as others have mentioned, the old lunatic asylums (as they were actually called) weren't exactly a place you'd want to end up either. Prison may suck, but they tend not to actually lobotomize you at least.