From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Denton [TX] Record-Chronicle:

The death of a resident of the Denton, Texas, State School has been ruled a homicide, according to an autopsy released by the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office.

The autopsy said Janice Campbell, 53, died Friday of head injuries she received in an assault about two weeks ago. An official at the medical examiner’s office said Campbell was taken from the institution to a hospital on March 3.

A state official said the incident was an accident, not an assault, but declined to release specific information to protect residents’ privacy.

Campbell’s death comes as Texas is considering statewide reforms of its 13 institutions for people with disabilities, after a federal investigation found widespread evidence of abuse, neglect, preventable deaths and denial of civil rights.

A federal investigation of the Denton facility last spring found evidence of staff failure to protect clients from abuse, neglect or mistreatment, failure to investigate allegations of abuse or neglect, and failure to provide healthcare services, prompt treatment and followup care.

See also:

• Officials: Woman died after colliding with another resident at Denton State School — Dallas Morning News
• State calls death at state school an accident — AP/Houston Chronicle

From the Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle:

Coerced fights between residents with intellectual disabilities, dubbed “human cockfights” by one state senator, have been confirmed in at least two more Texas institutions, according to an official of a federally mandated oversight group.

Beth Mitchell, senior managing attorney with Advocacy Inc., said the fights are “creating a climate where abuse is acceptable, and in these cases encouraged.”

State law enforcement officials are investigating a “fight club” ring at the Corpus Christi state institution, and say arrests are expected soon. The investigation is happening as legislators debate how to reform the “state schools,” which have been cited by the U.S. Justice Department for 53 preventable deaths, as well as systemic abuse, neglect, and civil rights violations.

(more…)

“Why would we be shocked something like this could be happening in these facilities when there’s been this long history of abuse?“

– Curtis L. Decker

By Patricia E. Bauer

The news reports started coming out of Texas yesterday afternoon: Vulnerable men with intellectual disabilities were allegedly used and abused for their caretakers’ entertainment. Law enforcement authorities say a group of employees at the Corpus Christi State School in Texas repeatedly staged a “fight club,” compelling their charges to physically battle with one another.

The investigation began when someone gave authorities a cellphone that contained videos of the alleged abuse. As of now, seven state employees have been suspended from their jobs and the state has halted admissions to the campus.

Searching for background on the emerging scandal, we caught up with Curtis L. Decker. He is executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, the nation’s largest non-governmental enforcer of disability rights.  Decker is familiar with conditions in Texas’ institutions for people with intellectual disabilities because the NDRN has been investigating conditions and working with residents and their families for several years.

—

Q:. Based on your experience and observations, what can you tell us about what may be happening inside the institutions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Texas?

Curtis L. Decker: There has been an absolutely demonstrated and documented series of abuse and neglect in these facilities, eight hundred staff fired over the last several years, numerous deaths, lots of complaints and lots of documentation of abuse and neglect. There has been nothing like this particular story, but why would we be shocked something like this could be happening in these facilities when there’s been this long history of abuse?

(more…)

From the Houston Chronicle, Associated Press, CNN, Austin American-Statesman:

Texas governor Rick Perry today suspended admissions to a Texas institution for people with disabilities after learning of cellphone videos that police say show residents being forced to engage in “fight club” battles.

The governor also authorized the emergency installation of video cameras in the facility, which houses 376 residents and employs 877 workers.

The investigation of Corpus Christi State School comes as the legislature is considering increasing oversight of the state’s 13 institutions. The federal Department of Justice last year reported that negligent and abusive care in the institutions violated residents’ civil rights; it cited 53 deaths linked to preventable conditions at the institutions.

Police learned of the fights when someone gave a cell phone containing videos of the brawls at the Corpus Christi State School to an off-duty officer on Friday, police Captain Tim Wilson said by phone from Corpus Christi.

… “It appears that the workers were using clients as some sort of fight club,” Wilson said. “I’ve been in police work for 30 years and I’ve never seen something like this. These workers are exploiting them for their own entertainment.”

From the Dallas Morning News, the Austin American-Statesman, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

The Texas Senate unanimously approved an emergency measure on Monday to boost protections for residents at the troubled state schools for people with intellectual disabilities.

Gov. Rick Perry gave the issue emergency status after a U.S. Justice Department report last year concluded that residents of the institutions are often victims of abuse, neglect and inadequate medical treatment. At least 53 residents died within the past year because of lapses in health care, the report found.

The measure would establish an independent ombudsman’s office for regular audits of the state institutions, strengthen staff background checks, and add video surveillance and an abuse and neglect hot line.

“The abuse and neglect that has occurred in our state schools is inexcusable,” said the author of the bill, Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound). “These are people with serious disabilities. They need our oversight, and they need our compassion.”

(more…)

Atalissa scandal grows

From the Des Moines Register:

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said this week that “every level of government bureaucracy failed” to protect the dozens of workers with intellectual disabilities who were recently evacuated from a padlocked bunkhouse in the town of Atalissa.

The governor’s statement followed disclosures this week that the Iowa Department of Human Services had declined a request from Texas officials to investigate the men in 1997. Iowa also denied two subsequent requests for investigations, including one by a caretaker who alleged that the men were being abused and neglected.

The men had been employed by a Texas company and were working at an Iowa turkey processing plant for most of the past 35 years, where they were paid as little as 44 cents an hour. They were provided with room, board and care in a century-old building in Atalissa that was recently closed by the state fire marshal. Conditions in the bunkhouse were described by an Iowa health official as “deplorable.”

State and federal criminal investigations are ongoing. The Texas employer, Henry’s Turkey Service, has denied any wrongdoing.

See also:

Task force urges action to help mentally disabled — Houston Chronicle

Register all boarding houses, says task force — Des Moines Register

Abuse, sex for pay alleged at bunkhouse in Atalissa — Des Moines Register

Earlier posts here.

Carolyn Washburn, editor and vice president of the Des Moines Register, calls on Iowa Gov. Chet Culver for more openness and accountability on the Atalissa bunkhouse case, in which is it alleged that 21 workers with intellectual disabilities were exploited for years without state intervention. Among her complaints: The state has not explained why state workers cleared Henry’s Turkey Service of complaints received in 2001 and 2005.

How, Washburn wonders, can members of the public believe that vulnerable people are being protected when the state is shrouding its actions in secrecy?

… we don’t know whether state inspectors did their job adequately or failed and left those men in a vulnerable situation for four more years.

The governor has now appointed a task force. All members are employees of those same state agencies.

 And to bring this full circle, we don’t know what changes in staffing the directors of those departments have recommended for budget cuts. Would their recommendations improve this situation or leave some Iowans more vulnerable?

Someone in the community said to me this week, “Our public trust cannot be blind at this critical moment.”

See also: Widow at ex-turkey farm faces questions — Houston Chronicle

Jane Ann Johnson of Goldthwaite, Texas, is the widow of Thurman “T.H.” Johnson, whose Hill Country Farms Inc. sent workers with intellectual disabilities from Texas to Atalissa, Iowa. Hill Country Farms and its subsidiary, Henry’s Turkey Service, are being investigated by the Texas attorney general’s office, the state of Iowa, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Social Security Administration.

[Although] Texas and federal officials have said they had little or no prior knowledge of the operation, the array of plaques on Johnson’s wall and the recollections and records of those in Goldthwaite reveal a long history of government awareness and oversight.

It was a decades-old arrangement born out of the state of Texas’ desire for farms to take older, mentally challenged wards off their hands.