Protesters lined the street outside the Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute on Saturday speaking out against Iowa Governor Terry Branstads plan to close the facility by the end of the year.

The Branstad Administration said the state will close both the Mount Pleasant and the Clarinda mental health institutions by the end of December 2015.

There are no patients at the Mount Pleasant facility currently and most of the workers have already been laid off.

Governor Branstad said neither the Mount Pleasant or the Clarinda facilities are accredited and cannot provide proper care for their patients. He said closing them both would save the state up to $10 million a year.

Governor Branstad has also said mental health patients would do better in local community-run facilities.

Protesters at Saturdays event disagreed.

Its not just a certain group of people this affects, it affects the entire community, said Kaitlyn Dirth, a nursing student at Iowa Wesleyan College. Weve been working closely as a class and taking trips to Des Moines, talking with legislators there in order to try to keep these institutes open.

Senator Tom Courtney was at the protest and said Governor Branstad is closing two out of the four Iowa mental health institutions without consulting the legislature.

I think its a wrong move, I think its going to wind up costing the taxpayers rather than saving them, Senator Courtney said.

Senator Courtney said under Governor Branstads plan, the Mount Pleasant Sheriffs Department now has to drive mental health patients five hours in the other direction, to either the Independence or Cherokee facilities. He said the patients are required by law to be handcuffed in the back of the squad car during the entire ride.

These people shouldnt be handcuffed, they [have] mental health issues. They shouldnt be handcuffed, Senator Courtney said.

This has kind of gone under the radar of a lot of Iowans, I dont think theyre going to know it for a year or so, said Senator Courtney. If they have a loved one that has a mental illness, theyre going to see all of a sudden that theyre not within an hour or two drive, theyre five or six hours away.

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst did not comment specifically about Governor Branstads plan at one of her stops on Saturday, but she did talk about the importance of mental health.

We have a vulnerable population at those facilities, we need to make sure that these individuals are being care for [and] make sure none of these individuals are falling through the cracks, Senator Ernst said.

Once the Mount Pleasant and Clarinda institutions close, all funding for those facilities will be reallocated to the Independence and Cherokee institutions.