Texas lawmakers balance institutions, community care
June 4th, 2009By Emily Ramshaw in the Dallas Morning News:
Faced with dangerous conditions inside Texas’ institutions for the mentally disabled and a massive waiting list for community-based care, lawmakers didn’t pick sides – they improved both.
Pressure on the state had intensified recently after a U.S. Department of Justice investigation found widespread civil rights violations inside the walls of its 13 institutions, and national media aired videos of late-night “fight clubs” forced on residents at the Corpus Christi State School by state employees. The legislature responded by “gingerly balancing the competing interests of state school parents and advocates for independent living.”
Among the legislature’s actions:
- Passage of an emergency safety bill that creates an independent ombudsman to investigate injuries and deaths at state schools; requires fingerprinting, background checks and random drug testing of all state school employees; and requires the installation of security cameras in all facilities.
- Approval of a five-year, $112 million settlement with the Justice Department that calls for hiring more than 1,000 new state school workers, dramatically improving health care, and installing independent monitors to oversee conditions at the facilities.
- Approval of an extra $200 million in state funds to provide community-based care for nearly 8,000 people stuck on long waiting lists.
- Approval of a long-denied measure to allow a lawsuit against the state by the family of a young man who was nearly beaten to death by a state school employee.
Disability rights advocates say the future is still uncertain until the state develops a plan to phase out the state’s institutions for people with intellectual disabilities. The idea is unpopular with lawmakers who fear the loss of jobs if facilities in their districts close.
Earlier posts here.
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