From the Associated Press/Austin American-Statesman:

Nearly 270 employees were fired or suspended in fiscal 2008 for abusing or neglecting residents with intellectual disabilities at Texas institutions, according to records obtained by the Associated Press.

Documents obtained by the AP showed that 11 of the firings or suspensions were considered serious because they involved physical or sexual abuse that caused or may have caused serious physical injury. It was not clear whether any of those fired were also prosecuted.

The 13 institutions hold 4,600 residents, and employ more than 12,000 full-time workers.

Henry’s Turkey Service once was praised, is now condemned

From the Des Moines Register:

Four decades ago, Henry’s Turkey Service of Goldthwaite, Texas, was hailed as a national leader because it hired people with intellectual disabilities. But society’s attitudes and practices toward hiring people with disabilities have changed since then, even as the company’s policies remained constant.

The company has been reviled by politicians and disability advocates for paying disabled workers the equivalent of less than 50 cents an hour, in a situation that some have called comparable to slavery. Henry’s Turkey Service ran the bunkhouse in Atalissa, Iowa, that was shut down earlier this year amid complaints about substandard living conditions and neglect.

Earlier posts here.

Sponsors say they couldn’t muster support

Federal report last year found widespread abuse, neglect, civil rights violations in ’state schools’

From the Dallas Morning News, Austin American-Statesman:

Texas legislators Rep. Patrick Rose and Sen. Rodney Ellis have withdrawn a proposal to require consolidation or closure of the state’s troubled institutions for people with intellectual disabilities.

“This body is one that requires compromise,” said Rose, who is chairman of the House Committee on Human Services. “Getting a bill out of committee and to the floor with consolidation required is a very difficult thing, and, I think, impossible this session, here in the House.”

The future of Texas’ state schools has been hotly debated in the state legislature this session following a December report from the federal Department of Justice that said the institutions do not protect residents from harm. The families of residents of the institutions have lobbied hard to keep them open, with the support of editorial writers around the state.

Earlier posts here.

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.

From AP/Houston Chronicle, Cedar Rapids [IA] Gazette:

The head of an Iowa task force says there could be more cases in the state in which people with intellectual disabilities are being exploited. John McCalley urged the legislature to authorize additional regulations to help authorities intervene if abuse is detected.

The task force was created to investigate after 21 men with intellectual disabilities were evacuated from a battered bunkhouse in Atalissa. They had been employed for decades by a meat processing company for as little as 44 cents per hour.

McCalley said the task force is not considering penalizing local elected officials who ignore or fail to detect situations like the one in Atalissa. The bunkhouse was owned by the city of Atalissa, but officials there said they were unaware of the conditions.

A criminal investigation is continuing.

From the Boston Globe:

Massachusetts officials say reports of fraud, abuse and neglect by personal health care attendants in the state have tripled over the past few years, just as the state’s Medicaid program has significantly increased the amount of money it spends on the workers.

As a result, new concerns are being raised about a state system that requires no training, certification or criminal background checks for attendants, and operates with minimal oversight of low-paid home healthcare workers.

Some lawmakers are calling for changes. A bill has been introduced that would allow people to run a free criminal background check on attendants.

From the Dallas Morning News, AP/Houston Chronicle:

The family of Hasib Chishty is seeking permission to sue the state of Texas for a 2002 attack at the Denton State School that left the 34-year-old paralyzed.

Chishty, who has an intellectual impairment but was otherwise physically healthy until the attack, is now unable to walk or feed himself. Chishty’s attacker went to prison and his family has been seeking to sue the state for years, but has been blocked by the Texas sovereign immunity statute.

They are hoping that recent allegations about abuse and neglect in Texas institutions will prompt lawmakers to grant them their day in court.

Kevin Miller, the staffer who attacked Chishty and is now in prison, has described a culture of drug use by himself and staffers and violent abuse of residents in the Denton State School.

In a videotaped statement, Miller called it “the systematic torture of residents … to get them to change behavior, or for sport, or to sadistically try to change their behavior.”