In a sweeping lawsuit filed Thursday, the Justice Department says the state of Arkansas is violating the rights of residents with developmental disabilities by giving them a “draconian choice” of living in institutions or receiving no assistance whatsoever.
The complaint paints a picture of an outdated system where individuals with disabilities have little choice but to enter one of the state’s six segregated institutions if they want supports. Once there, residents are offered limited opportunities to leave the facilities or interact with anyone who does not have a disability.
The Justice Department alleges that residents are not given the tools to transition to a more independent living situation, nor are they educated about or given the option to choose community living. Further, the complaint indicates that many of the residents who have left the state’s institutional environments returned because too few community living supports were available.
Currently an Arkansas resident with a developmental disability is likely to spend 10 years on a waiting list before receiving a Medicaid home and community-based services waiver to receive care at home. Meanwhile, Arkansas is expanding its system of institutions rather than investing in further community-living options, the Justice Department says.
“Arkansas’ lack of community services requires individuals with developmental disabilities to choose between receiving services in segregated institutions and receiving no services at all,” said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general who heads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Arkansas illegally segregates hundreds of individuals in institutions across the state and places hundreds more at risk of needless institutionalization. We are acting now to remedy discrimination against these individuals.”
This is not the first time federal officials have alleged wrongdoing in Arkansas’ treatment of those with developmental disabilities. A state facility in Conway, Ark. has been under investigation since 2002.
Earlier this week Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe reportedly told a group of service providers that he believes people should be served in the least restrictive environment but that institutionalization should remain an option for state residents.
Arkansas is backward in many ways, (large KKK presence that leaks into north Louisiana, a law intended to keep gays from adopting, etc.) but this is the worst I have heard. I suspect consideration is given to the fact that as long as there are large state institutions, there are also jobs for the poorly educated people who work in them. It is just like in the prisons, the economy of a state is better if a lot of the citizens are locked up. (Rural areas in southern states actually compete for prisons because of the jobs they create.) Then these employees are grateful to the government for their good jobs so they vote for the conservatives that keep the institutions open.
In Georgia a lot of institutionalization ended in the 1980s because RESIDENTS of the institutions demanded their freedom and the supports they needed. When you say “lawsuit” the institution says “OK”. One resident of an institution where I worked started agitating as soon as he turned 18. He moved into public housing, got an assistant and eventually married her. Later they adopted an orphan with a disability. Of course there was an advantage in those days because many of the residents, including this man, were not mentally retarded but had physical and multiple disabilities that meant they required physical care, but they had been labeled retarded in order to secure institutional placement.
How sad that the Feds are not doing the same in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The “draconian choice” of living in institutions or receiving no assistance whatsoever exist in many states and territories. The complaint surely paints a picture of an outdated system where individuals with disabilities have little choice but to enter one of the states’s six segregated institutions and I see this situation going on Nationwide due to the economy. Now the Justice Department recognizes that residents are not given the tools to transition to a more independent living situation. Now the recognize that citizens are not about or given the option to choose community living. More and more need to complaint because too few community living supports are available. How much compares Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. It seems to me that Thomas E. Perez will be shock to learn that there are many states and territories on the same situation as Arkansas but what does it takes for them to do something about it?