From the AP/Chicago Tribune:

A new “premise alert program” allows families in some areas of Illinois to share information about medical problems and disabilities with local police and fire departments. Advocates say the information will allow emergency responders to act with greater speed and sensitivity.

The point of the program is to prepare officers approaching a person with a disability during an emergency and to understand, for example, that they may fear loud noises or be unable to hear spoken instructions. Firefighters would know if a burning home is likely to contain someone who can’t get out. Advocates say Pennsylvania is the only other state to offer the service so broadly.

Itasca deputy police chief Dean Myles, who serves on the board of the Autism Society of Illinois, said the service could help prevent potentially fatal encounters between police and disabled people, including one in 2005 that killed Hansel Cunningham of Des Plaines.

(more…)

On the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court Olmstead decision, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law called for a renewed effort to integrate people with disabilities in their communities. The organization’s report, “Still Waiting — The Unfulfilled Promise of Olmstead,” says federal and state governments could save billions of dollars by moving people with mental disabilities from institutional to community settings.

Among the report’s key points:

• States must end the unnecessary segregation of people with disabilities in institutions, and shift funding to appropriate community-based services;
• States continue to waste scarce resources by placing people with mental illnesses in costly, ineffective institutional settings, often under pressure by profit-making providers; and
• Supreme Court and other judicial nominees must have an understanding of and intention to uphold Olmstead, the ADA, and other civil rights laws.

“On this pivotal anniversary of Olmstead, we must take a hard look at what really needs to be accomplished to adequately serve millions of people with mental illnesses so that they receive the most integrated care possible,” said Robert Bernstein, executive director of the Bazelon Center. The report was released at a Washington press conference.

From the [Minneapolis-St. Paul] Star-Tribune, [St. Paul] Pioneer Press, KSTP-TV:

A former Minnesota National Guardsman, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the kidnapping and torture of a man with intellectual disabilities.

John Maniglia, 19, offered a written apology and plea for forgiveness in court to victim Justin Hamilton, who was 24 at the time of the assault. Maniglia had pleaded guilty to one count each of kidnapping, third-degree assault and theft as part of a plea agreement, and seven other charges against him were dropped.

Hamilton, who believed his attackers were his friends, went with them to a rural area where they tied him up and punched, kicked, hit and burned him over two days, according to court documents. Three more suspects await trial, and another has pleaded guilty to various charges.

Earlier post here.

(Photos from KSTP-TV)

From ABC News (with Nightline video):

UPDATE: See unofficial transcript of Nightline report.

Recently released videos show residents of a Corpus Christi state institution for people with intellectual disabilities being forced to fight for the amusement of night shift employees.

The disturbing videos show residents being kicked and prodded to fight while employees laugh. Residents say they were told they might be beaten or sent to prison if they refused to fight.

Employees made the videos with their cellphones. A judge ordered them released to an attorney for a former resident who is suing the state.

ABC’s Brian Ross says residents were wakened after midnight and forced to engage in fights in the Corpus Christi state school almost every night for more than a year. “It’s like Michael Vick and his pit bulls, except they treated these human beings like dogs,” said Robert Hilliard, attorney for a former state school resident.

One resident is seen on the video trying to run away from his attacker and a large group of employees and reidents tracking him through the halls. When cornered, he wails and moans and tells the employees, “I will behave.”

See also:

Hutchison’s campaign criticizes Perry’s handling of state schools — Dallas Morning News Trailblazers blog

Previous posts here.

From the Chicago Tribune with video:

The family of Oscar Guzman say the 16-year-old was standing outside his family’s restaurant when Chicago police began questioning him and he walked away. When the officers went after him, his family says he ran for the restaurant, yelling, “I’m a special boy!” Guzman has autism.

Guzman’s family said one of the officers struck him in the head with a baton, cutting a gash that required eight stitches. Officials are investigating.

The incident happened days after the department held an Autism Safety Awareness Night and instructed officers on how to recognize the needs of citizens with mental illness or disabilities.

(Chicago Tribune photo)

From the Des Moines Register:

Federal, state and county investigators are advancing their probe into Henry’s Turkey Service, the company that is suspected of exploiting and neglecting workers with intellectual disabilities in Atalissa, Iowa.

No criminal charges have been filed and company officials are denying doing anything wrong.  Among the agencies participating in the investigation are the FBI, Social Security Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and county prosecutors.

Twenty-one men were evacuated from a company-run bunkhouse in Atalissa in February when a state fire marshall declared it unsafe. The men had been employed for decades for as little as 44 cents per hour.

State records obtained by the Register show that some of the workers had serious medical issues in the months before the bunkhouse was closed, including one who required urgent medical care after not having his toenails cut for two years. Another man had a broken kneecap that had been left untreated.

‘A recipe for disaster’

From the Dallas Morning News:

An investigation of personnel records by the Dallas Morning News has found that the 11 Corpus Christi State School employees accused of staging “fight club” brawls between residents with intellectual disabilities were hired despite limited work experience, limited education and poor work histories.

Among the findings:

• Only four of the employees had direct-care experience; most had worked as fast-food busboys, forklift operators or housekeepers;
• Among the four with experience, one had been fired from a private-sector residential care facility and another had been suspended in August for verbally abusing a resident;
• Two had already been disciplined by the Department of Aging and Disability Services; and
• None had more education than a high school diploma or GED.

[Said] Colleen Horton, with the University of Texas Center for Disability Studies: “When you give people with limited education and limited skill full control over every aspect of vulnerable residents’ lives, it’s a recipe for disaster.”

All 11 employees have either left the Corpus Christi State School or have been fired, and charges have been filed against six of them.

Earlier posts here.