Corey, Who?

A boy named Corey. Probably in his late teens. Beaten by a state Supportive Living Center employee in Austin. Beaten at night by the a man who is underpaid. Corey had Autism and behavior problems. Note the pictures of his bruises. Cameras will be installed at the Austin State Supportive Living Center in the fall.

Whew. I am glad the cameras are going to be installed. That is a relief to me. I am comforted to know that my tax dollars are going to pay for cameras to be placed in the common areas of these state operated institutions for those people. I mean State Supportive Living Centers. I feel better when I say State Supportive Living Centers. When I call these institutions State Supportive Living Centers, I feel better about them and myself because it is really hard to think of anyone living in Institutions in 2010. When I say State Supportive Living Centers it is also hard for me to think about Corey being beaten by someone paid to support him because it seems that beatings may not really happen in a place called a State Supportive Living Center. I do not even want to use an acronym, ASSLC because I do not like what that acronym may mean to others.

I am very glad about these cameras. I understand that these cameras are very expensive which probably means the state employees paid to watch the tapes will be able to see the tapes on HD. This is good, because I am sure these employees paid to view these tapes deserve HD as they are underpaid. Oh, I found out that the cameras are going to be installed in the “Common Areas” in the State Supportive Living Center. This means our underpaid state employees who view the tapes will get a really good view of what happens in living rooms, dining rooms and hallways. This is good. But…and I don’t want to be critical in anyway, but this kid, uh, what is his name…Corey, yeah. I think he got his ass kicked in his own bedroom or the room he sleeps in. I have heard that folks who get to live in State Supportive Living Centers have rooms kind of like; you know…a college dorm. Yeah. Like living in a college dorm your whole live. Anyway. This unfortunate situation of this kid being beaten is still a little sketchy. I mean the guys charged with doing it, say they didn’t do it. Now, Corky was on special supervision for his violent behavior. This staff guy was outside of his room all night and then suddenly the next morning, the boy had bruises everywhere. I am thinking that the boy may have fallen out of bed causing multiple bruises that look like fist marks. Or this may have just been an isolated incident.

Back to this camera situation. I really do feel better knowing that these state employees who monitor the video on these cameras placed in “Common Areas” will be able to catch the bad guys beating people up. This may not work for this boy’s situation as he was stomped in his own bedroom, a place where cameras aren’t allowed and I respect this boy’s right to privacy. I really do. AND…this brings up another point. If the staff really beat this kid, don’t you think they would have dragged him out of his room, down a hallway and into a common area so the staff watching the HD could see it happen? I bet they would have woken up immediately and run out the secret video room and stopped what happened to this kid.
Now. Please believe me when I say I really hate vulnerable people being beaten on my tax dollars. BUT. Please remember those poor staff that continue to beat people in their charge. These are tough jobs and you get what you pay for. I mean, really. Can you imagine a job that you have to go to every day where you have to work with people that piss you off so much that you simply have to beat the crap out of them? How can I judge these staff people? I have no idea the conditions they have to work in. They only have GEDs and are starting at around $10.00 an hour. Gratefully they get great health benefits, retirement, vacation and holidays. AND a state employees union that will stand by their union buddies not matter what! I am an old Union guy. Those guys in the coal mines deserve Union support. Their product is coal. Keeping people under your thumb in horrible conditions is no different and State Supportive Living Centers have a product to keep and that is to keep em going so more money can be spent to support these hard working staff. I mean look at the history of the State Supportive Living Centers.

The Department of Justice is watching over them. Like God’s Angels they are. These G-Men are doing a great job so far. They have shown reports about State Supportive Living Centers that show the same old so called problems. Rampant abuse, horrible medical care, people being kept there against their will. It has been over a year now that the DOJ has been in these State Supportive Living Centers and they have been busy making reports and I’m sure they will get to the bottom of these problems. They are G-Men for God’s sake. Too bad for Calvin though. He just got caught behind the ole eight ball. A day late and a dollar short! I know he must appreciate all of these efforts to keep him safe and knows things will be better soon. He may not have realized this blanket of safety; this Federal Shield was there for him when he was being pounded. I hope he has been informed and is appreciative. I know I am.

My gosh. I have spent so much time writing all of this down. I usually just let all of this stuff go when I read something bad about a State Supportive Living Center. But for a few moments, Charlie’s story really got to me. Oh it is such a mess. I apologize for this rambling bunch of statements. Should have spent more time on the pre season Football scores. It is all so overwhelming. Best to leave all of this in the hands of those who have done such a great job for so long. Just wanted to say. Good Luck, Corey!

A Concerned Texan!

Wet Blanket

Corey Baker, a young man, a 17 year old teenager with Autism was beaten at Austin State Institution.

He has the bruises to prove it. Bruise pics and link to story You can read the articles in the paper. The articles may have been posted on your disability rights list serve. I know the story was posted on the Community Now! List serve…with little to no response. It like this huge wet blanket. A nasty wet blanket thrown over me. Smothering me. Dragging me down, holding me down. Having hard time breathing. I am being driven to drink a glass of wine, watch mindless TV and just let it go. Just another beating. Yet another one. And I know. I know, there is one happening right now as I write. It is eight pm now, which means the night shift, is in full swing at our ridiculously titled 13 State Supportive Living Centers. The night shift. A time of terror for people we will never know. The night shift. Poorly trained people under supervised, poorly educated, given the power to let people live or die. The whiff of this kind of power is stagnant and rank. An unholy place where evil can happen and does.

I am sickened by this most recent beating. My heart breaks for this Mom who had no choice but to put her son in an institution, four hours away from his home. How many of you parents out there have been very close to making the horrible decision to place your child in an institution? I have. It is a dark place.

I know people that have had to make decisions to put their family at risk to keep their kid out of an institution. They hold on, hold on, hold for that damn slot to come open. Some cannot hold out and have only one choice: An Institution. I cannot and won’t sit in judgment of families who have to place their child in an institution because their child does not have the support he needs to live at home. This decision is personal and horrible.

And what about Corey? Mom having to make a tough decision is one thing. But, what about Corey? According to the newspaper, he was recently moved from his home in Colorado where he lived with his Grandmother to Texas to live with his Mom. His whole world was completely changed. For any young person, this is difficult. If you have Autism, it can be totally overwhelming. Corey was asked to change his life and when he got to Texas, other than the hellish heat, he most likely got nothing. No supports, nothing. Oh, yeah. Wait for 8-12 years to get a waiver slot, or go into an institution.

Where is the outrage? I hear nothing.

I am not going to sit quietly. I am not. Silence is complicit with the evil. If I am quiet, then I am complicit. You too, for that manner.

And to clarify, we must get everyone out of state institutions that want out and develop a long range plan to close the institutions no longer needed( I mean for God’s sake, even DADS says it will cost almost a half a billion dollars just to keep the buildings maintained over the next five years). This plan must take steps to return any money garnished from closures to fund the waiting list, so people like Corey aren’t put in harm’s way because they have no other choice. That is it. Simple and to the point. Get em out, close the ones we don’t need, shift money to those waiting.

Corey could have very easily ended up like Michael Nicholson in Lubbock. justice4michael.com Dead. Strangled and beaten. Tortured. It appears that Michael had Autism as well. Seems like in Texas institutions, behavior programs for people with Autism include systematic torture.

The Wave is coming. The Autism wave is coming. It is a tsunami. If we don’t fix things now, and this mean creating a system of supports for people with autism to live in their communities, then our institutions will be full. We will have to build another 13, maybe 30.

The message is about balance and real choice.

I started out with this whatever it is I am writing talking about the “Wet Blanket”. It is evil this blanket that will give us permission to be complacent. Every Corey, is my own child, is Michael Nicholson, is Haseeb Chishty, is, is, is. We have to fight the complacency of our daily lives. The lives where we are just trying to get through the day with a child that is tough. Trying to keep a job, trying to have a life, keep a marriage together or struggle to pick up the pieces when it fails. Getting through days where our old friends don’t come by anymore or family is distant and no one really understands. When we don’t have time for our other kids or our child with a disability has his heart broken because of her difference or, or, or…

As hard as we struggle today, we must find a moment to invest in the future of our children. I know many of you may have young children and that every night when you drop without a huge crisis is a good day. I have met so many wonderful people who struggle and give up so much for their children, who have a vision that their baby has a gift to give. And we all need make sure she is present in her community to share that gift.

I know it is asking a great deal of you to step up and do something. It may seem so far away that anything you do now can make a difference. The future of our children is smack in the middle of what we do today. There are 10s of thousands of people waiting on waiting lists. Quality community services and supports can be spotty. Finding exceptional behavioral support is really hard to find in Texas. You can make a difference by being a part of organized action. Action as simple as a phone call delivered at the right moment to the right legislator, an email, a visit to your State Rep or Senator with a group of other families. Bring your kids!

find your Texas legislator link

And for every call or email or whatever you do, it will keep you from the horrors of complacency, the temptation to ignore Corey because all of this is so overwhelming and nothing seems to change and what can I do anyway?

You can act. You. can. act. And when you rest or have a moment of calm you will know that that moment, on that day, you acted. On that day, you started a savings account paid out in action for your kid’s future.

Several advocate groups are planning a news conference and Rally on September 1st, the beginning of Texas’ new fiscal year to stand for community services..

Texas has a 100,000 people waiting for community services. But they keep dumping more and more money into these institutional hellholes. 1/3 of all funds already go to these institutions, which only serve 9% of folks with disabilities in the state.

Plan to meet September 1st.

Write/fax/visit your legislators. Make sure they know your story.

Get ready to educate these legislators more. Because they must know our kids are valuable members of our communities. And we are not supposed to live in a world where we are forced to lock them away.

Contact Community Now! (communitynowfreedom@gmail.com) Join our list serve or one of our Coalitions. This upcoming Legislative Session will be bloody. Our state faces a huge budget deficit and our children are often the first to get something taken away from them. We are 100,000 strong. Those of us on waiting lists, our families and friends await their shot at the American Dream. This Sleeping Giant has to wake up and be heard with a loud voice calling for equity, choice and the immediate end to a system build on blood, graft, and the backs of innocents.

Choose Freedom,

Ginny

Justice for cats, but what about Texas' most vunerable people?

Have you heard this story about the animal shelter in Dallas? A cat escaped and got stuck in the wall. Employees knew about this but did nothing. They could hear the cat trying to escape, but the cat died within the walls of the shelter.



Heinous, isn't it? The district attorney's office is looking into the death, and has subpoenaed employees to testify before a grand jury this week.

Contrast the cat story to the happenings to humans in Texas.

Michael Nicholson was murdered on June 6, 2009. Killed by a state employee who sat on him, mocked Michael, and choked him with a towel repeatedly. And it was witnessed by a total of 6 employees that were all fired. But only one was charged. Donnell Smith tortured Michael for hours, and suffocated a person. This heinous act of murder was never tried. Donnell still walks the streets a free man.
http://justice4michael.com
State school death a homicide

In December 2008, an employee at the San Antonio State School was fired after he forced a male resident with intellectual disabilities to perform a sex act on a male resident who also had mental disabilities. No charges were ever filed. San Antonio State School worker fired for sexual abuse

Further, these crimes are rarely reported. Only 6% of the claims of abuse and neglect in these state institutions are confirmed. I personally know of several witnessed that were not confirmed. Even when the evidence exists on such an overwhelming level that unionized state employees are fired, the perpetrators are almost never punished criminally. Emily Ramshaw's story for the Texas Tribune revealed that in the last 10 years, only 75 employees were fired for the most heinous, documented abuse and neglect. Of those 75, only 13 were charged with crimes. Just 2 actually served jail time. Convinced? Please note that "Among the abusive employees who were never charged? An employee who punched and kicked a mentally disabled man, fracturing his ribs and lacerating his liver. An employee who sexually assaulted an immobile resident while he was giving him a bath. And a worker who used his belt to repeatedly whip a disabled resident across the face and mouth."
Disability Workers Rarely Prosecuted for Violence

Every day, people are locked away in institutions, when the federal civil rights laws guarantee that people with disabilities must be served in "the most integrated setting." Texas continues to be under investigation by the Department of Justice, and independent monitors are still finding the same violations, even after more than $40 million in additional money was allocated to "fix" these places during the last legislative session as part of the settlement with the Department of Justice .
Problems persist at state center for mentally disabled, monitors find

It really is time to invoke that "Justice for all" clause.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Albert Einstein

Problems persist at state center for mentally disabled in Lubbock, monitors find

12:00 AM CDT on Friday, May 28, 2010

By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com

AUSTIN – The state-run facility in Lubbock for the mentally disabled, where outcries of shoddy care and exploitation sparked a federal investigation five years ago, still has big problems, independent monitors reported Thursday.

At least 13 employees have been dismissed since July as a result of investigations finding abuse or neglect, and staffing shortages contributed to three incidents in recent months in which residents with mental disabilities wandered off, the report said.

Nearly half of the institution's 105 nurse jobs haven't been filled, and the 470 low-wage direct-care workers turn over at an annual rate of 60 percent. The facility houses 230 residents.

The independent monitors, jointly named after the state and the U.S. Department of Justice reached a settlement last year, expressed particular alarm that about 20 young men with both mental illness and mental retardation were living in a dorm that had only six inexperienced attendants.

Many of the residents "have some challenging behaviors," a top state official said Thursday, adding that the group has been reassigned to other units that have at least some veteran workers.

Department of Aging and Disability Services Commissioner Chris Traylor also said he's hired a new facility director and launched an effort to hire more staff – two actions his predecessor also took after a more scathing federal report was issued 3 ½ years ago.

"We agree there are complex problems and issues in Lubbock, but we're focusing on moving forward and putting ... in place the staffing necessary to improve the quality of life for the persons in the Lubbock State Supported Living Center," Traylor said.

One disability rights advocate, though, said it's "very disheartening" to see another critical report.

"They just have never gotten off the dime out there in Lubbock," said Dennis Borel, executive director for the Coalition of Texans With Disabilities. He noted that a federal report in December 2006 cited horrific living conditions and medical mistreatment of patients at the facility, and an internal state review two years ago was "equally dismal."

The June settlement capped a four-year federal investigation that found widespread civil rights violations across Texas' 13 state institutions for the mentally disabled. The Dallas Morning News and other media outlets reported on abuse and neglect in the facilities, including the disclosure of an employee-directed "fight club" involving residents at the institution in Corpus Christi.

Federal scrutiny was most intense at facilities in Lubbock and Denton.

Three separate monitoring teams have completed "baseline" reviews at seven of the 13 former "state schools," now called state-supported living centers. Once monitors finish their initial reviews at Denton and the five remaining sites, they'll make return visits every six months through 2013.

"We're focused on long-term improvement," said Traylor, who announced he's named a new director of the Lubbock facility, Libby Allen, a 36-year veteran who spent most of her career at the Lufkin center.

Chris Adams, assistant state commissioner over the facilities, said the 13 dismissals of Lubbock staff for allegedly abusing residents showed that managers and staff there take mistreatment seriously.

Adams said he's sprinting to hire more direct-care attendants, who in Lubbock are paid about $22,500 a year. Turnover will decline as the workers get reinforcements, he said. Although only 86 percent of Lubbock's nearly 500 direct-care jobs were filled in December, 95 percent are now, he said.

Although a 45-year-old resident died of suffocation last June while being restrained, prompting the dismissals of six employees, the report said "restraint use has declined" from 52 per quarter two years ago to "29 episodes per quarter" now.

The report also praised dental and mental health care being provided to the residents, Traylor noted.

"There is a lot going right," he said.

State Abuse

Despite reforms, abuse in state institutions remains high.

Link to Texas Observer story

by DAVE MANN

Published on: Monday, April 19, 2010

Despite reforms by state lawmakers, abuse and neglect of Texans with mental retardation in state-run institutions has increased the past three years, according to an Observer analysis of state data. Reforms enacted in response to a high-profile abuse scandal have left the facilities with fewer residents and more staff, yet confirmed allegations of abuse rose 57 percent between 2007 and 2009. However, the number of abuse cases has dropped slightly so far in 2010, indicating that perhaps the latest reforms are having some effect.

For the past four years, Texas’ 13 sprawling, state-run institutions for the mentally retarded—formerly known as State Schools and which the Legislature recently renamed State Supported Living Centers—have been the source of horrific tales of abuse. Since 2005, investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and numerous media outlets, including theObserver (see “Systemic Neglect,” May 1, 2008), have documented hundreds of instances in which Texans with mental retardation were beaten, neglected and, in some instances, killed by the staff charged with caring for them. In the most famous incident, workers at the Corpus Christi State School recorded a “fight club” video in which mentally disabled residents were forced to beat each other.

The abuse scandal was rooted in years of under-funding by the Legislature. Low pay and astronomical staff turnover, which ran as high as 70 percent in some facilities, led the institutions to hire low-grade employees—and in a few instances convicted felons—who never should have been caring for vulnerable, and often volatile, residents.

Despite reforms passed in the past two legislative sessions—including a 12-percent funding increase and nearly 3,000 additional caregivers—the number of abuse and neglect cases remains high.

Confirmed cases of abuse in State Supported Living Centers rose 57 percent between 2007 and 2009, according to an Observer analysis of state data, from 458 incidents in 2007 to 719 last year.

In the first six months of fiscal year 2010, which began in September, confirmed cases of abuse and neglect have dipped by 19 percent. State Supported Living Centers are on pace to report 580 cases of abuse in 2010, which while lower than 2007’s peak, is still historically high.

The facilities are now closely monitored by Justice Department inspectors, and some reforms have already had an effect. In the past six months, State Supported Living Centers have added more than 1,000 full-time employees, according to state records. And the facilities have fewer residents, as state officials transfer more disabled Texans into small, community group homes. State Supported Living Centers now employ nearly 13,000 workers to care for about 4,000 residents.

While the slight decrease in abuse cases so far in 2010 is encouraging, the Legislature’s refusal to give State Living Center employees a pay increase may hamper reform.

State Supported Living Center workers are on average the lowest-paid state employees, according to the Texas State Employees Union. Direct care workers earn a starting salary of roughly $8 an hour. Parents and families of residents have often blamed abuse and neglect partly on low pay.

It’s worth noting that confirmed cases of severe physical and sexual abuse have remained fairly constant the past three years, according to state data. But there’s been a sharp increase in confirmed incidents of “neglect,” which don’t involve physical violence by the staff, but usually consist of incompetent oversight of residents: allowing residents to fall from bed or leave the facility or harm themselves and others. In other words, the kinds of incidents you would expect from a staff that’s largely earning fast-food wages.

When asked if low salaries contributed to the increase in neglect, Cecilia Fedorov—a spokesperson with the Department of Aging and Disability Services, the state that oversees State Living Centers—said, “I don’t believe there’s ever an excuse for abuse, neglect or exploitation.” She added that salaries at state institutions are a “legislative question,” and not up to the agency.

The agency did ask the Legislature for a salary increase last session for State Living Center workers, and lawmakers denied the request.

Without a pay increase for direct care workers, it’s questionable whether the recent decline in abuse numbers will continue and whether Texas’ institutions for the mentally disabled can be adequately reformed.

Download abuse statistics for State Supported Living Centers in 2008 at www.txlo.com/ssabuse08

Download abuse statistics for State Supported Living Centers in 2009 at www.txlo.com/ssabuse09

Download abuse statistics for State Supported Living Centers in 2010 at www.txlo.com/ssabuse10

Disturbing findings in wake of 'fight club'

By TERRI LANGFORD

Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle (Link)

March 22, 2010, 10:24PM

Criminal fingerprint checks show at least 36 employees continued to work on the state payroll while caring for the mentally disabled — despite being arrested for felonies ranging from indecent exposure, to aggravated assault, child rape and murder.

Of those 36 with arrests, 17 had felony convictions and the remaining 19 still face trial, according to Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services records released to the Houston Chronicle Monday.

The release of the records, first requested six weeks ago, came on the eve of a House committee meeting Tuesday in which lawmakers will discuss for the first time what improvements have been made regarding care at the facilities in the wake of last year's shocking “fight club” incident in Corpus Christi.

While that's less than one percent of the 11,785 DADS employees who were fingerprinted and work at 13 State-Supported Living Centers, formerly known as state schools, the newest reform shows how pre-employment criminal background screens failed to alert the state to employees with criminal records.

Current pre-employment screening only checks for convictions in Texas. The fingerprint checks linked employees to convictions and arrests outside of Texas. Of the 17 with convictions, 13 have been terminated or resigned. The other four are still in “process” according to the agency, which released the numbers without comment.

“Of course it still matters. That amount of people has control over a handful of residents who are unable to communicate abuse or neglect or ward off that type of aggression,” said Beth Mitchell, senior managing attorney for Advocacy Inc., a group that has fought for better care of the mentally disabled in Texas. “You don't want someone like that corrupting other staff. That's what we saw in Corpus Christi. It only took one staff to corrupt a group of staff in the fight club.”

Cell phone fight videos

The incident, at what has now been renamed Corpus Christi State-Supported Living Center, was discovered by police a year ago when a lost cell phone had videos of mentally disabled residents fighting. Voices of the residents' state caretakers could be heard encouraging the residents to fight one another. Since then, four former DADS workers have been convicted as a result.

The fingerprint checks and another new reform, random drug testing — which snared 23 DADS employees who tested positive for drug use — are the only significant progress seen in the year since the cell phone video surfaced and since DADS entered into a settlement late last year with the U.S. Department of Justice.

A “baseline” report on the Corpus Christi facility, the first of 13 to be conducted on each center as part of that DOJ agreement, shows little has been done since the fight club scandal put Texas' care of the mentally disabled in the spotlight.

While the March 10 monitoring report of Corpus Christi State-Supported Living Center revealed “a number of good practices in place,” it also noted “a number of the areas in which there is a need for improvement.”

For example, in the past year, the state has yet to establish a “zero tolerance” of abuse at Corpus Christi, there are no full-time psychiatrists on staff in the Corpus facility and no standard diagnostic procedure in place for residents with psychiatric problems.

“It's pretty clear from the report that they're really far behind in meeting the criteria of the DOJ settlement,” Mitchell said.

Also, the DADS staff in Corpus has not come up with better ways to monitor the physical and nutritional needs of their residents and are not able to pinpoint those residents who are at-risk of abuse.

“The Facility is at the very beginning stages of implementing the process of screening individuals to determine if they fall into an at-risk category,” the report stated.

Documentation problems

In many areas, the monitors noted the Corpus Christi facility failed to keep proper documentation on residents. Dental care records were missing, as was proof that staff reviewed some residents' medication and allergies. The current forms being used at the Corpus Christi center failed to document residents' vocational strengths, needs or preferences.

A spokeswoman for state Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, the chair of the House Committee on Human Services, said Rose would not be making any comments about the report until Tuesday's meeting. Calls to other members, including state Rep. Abel Herrero, the committee's vice chair, were not returned.

terri.langford@chron.com

Report: State facility for people with disabilities lacks psychiatrists, trained therapists

Report: State facility for people with disabilities lacks psychiatrists, trained therapists

Posted using ShareThis

By Corrie MacLaggan

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Published: 8:54 p.m. Friday, March 19, 2010

Nine months after Texas and the U.S. Department of Justice entered into a settlement to improve health care and more quickly investigate reports of abuse and neglect at state institutions for people with mental disabilities, the facility in Corpus Christi doesn't have staff psychiatrists, has therapists who are ill-equipped to work with people with complex needs and doesn't have a clear zero-tolerance policy for abuse and neglect.

That's according to a new report on the Corpus Christi State Supported Living Center, the first issued by monitors reviewing the 13 institutions as part of the settlement. On Tuesday, the state House Committee on Human Services is set to examine progress at the facilities.

"The state-supported living centers, specifically Corpus Christi, are overwhelmed in meeting their responsibilities for caring for people with intellectual disabilities," said state Rep. Abel Herrero , D-Robstown , who is vice chairman of the committee and whose district includes the Corpus Christi facility.

The report says that the culture appears to be changing for the better at Corpus Christi, where last year staff members were found to have been organizing fights among residents. Staff members seemed to know to report suspected abuse and neglect immediately, and when asked how, they consistently flipped over their badges to show a sticker with instructions. And residents "appeared happily engaged" in activities, the report said.

But it also said that people who might benefit from alternative communication devices don't have access to them, and that residents are over-prescribed psychotropic drugs.

"We agree that there are many areas of concern, many areas in which we need to make changes and improvements," said Cecilia Fedorov , a spokeswoman for the Department of Aging and Disability Services .

The preliminary report about Corpus Christi — reports on the other institutions are expected by summer — isn't evaluating whether the facility is adhering to the settlement terms. That comes later, and the monitors will review each facility every six months until it has been in compliance for a year — a process Fedorov said could take five years or more.

The settlement is the culmination of a Justice Department investigation that began in 2005 at the Lubbock State School after reports of abuse and neglect and later expanded to the other facilities.

In addition to the changes required by the settlement, the Legislature last year mandated video cameras in common areas (they're in place in Corpus Christi but not yet elsewhere); random drug testing of the 12,500 employees (16 have been fired for testing positive, and seven resigned instead of getting tested); and fingerprint background checks for employees and volunteers (these are taking place, officials said).

"Although there are encouraging signs of progress, we still have a long way to go in making the system the best it can be for this vulnerable population," said state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, chairwoman of the Health and Human Services Committee and author of reform legislation.

In the report on Corpus Christi, the monitors noted that the limited availability of psychiatry services — there are two part-time consulting psychiatrists but no full-time staffers — "appears to have a negative impact on the delivery of services."

Fedorov said that the department is "aggressively recruiting" to find two staff psychiatrists. "We, like everybody who does deal with behavioral health, are competing for very few licensed and qualified psychiatrists," she said.

On the drug issue, the report gave an example of a resident whose behavior deteriorated after his mother's death. He threw temper tantrums, destroyed property and manipulated staff members.

Instead of a behavior management program, "the psychiatrist is prescribing potentially hazardous and dubiously effective drugs to stop the behaviors," the report said.

Beth Mitchell, managing attorney of Advocacy Inc., which advocates for Texans with disabilities, said the communication aid issue raised in the report shows how far behind the centers are in providing adequate care.

"Communication is often the reason people have behavior problems," she said. "If you can't communicate, you act out."

Mitchell also said she's worried about the lack of a clear zero-tolerance policy. "This is a place where people were being beat up, and you don't have zero tolerance?" she said.

Fedorov said that the department does not tolerate abuse and neglect, but that "we need to take steps to make sure that the policy is even more clear to everybody who comes on campus."

As part of a new legislative requirement, Gov. Rick Perry in February appointed an ombudsman for state supported living centers. George Bithos , a dentist and ordained Greek Orthodox deacon, has been visiting campuses since starting the job.

"I have found very dedicated people and people that are open to being looked at," Bithos said. "I've been impressed with the quality of the people, yet I'm aware that there are problems \u2026 that we'll need to take very seriously."

cmaclaggan@statesman.com; 445-3548

Death at Lubbock State School center of Texas statewide controversy

January 27, 3:41 PMDallas Disability ExaminerSteve Carter

Michael Nicholson was killed June 6th, 2009 by his caretakers at the Lubbock State School.
To date, only one arrest has been made. No trial or conviction has been set.

In a heinous act, of abuse of power caretakers at Lubbock State School killed MIchael Nicholson by strangulation. According to a Youtube video (see below) the violent strangulation of Michael occurred because of a dispute over clothes. It seems that Michael did not want to wear the type of clothes issued by the state school, preferring to select his own.

A common theme occurs all to often in homes for the aged and in institutions serving the disabled persons. The theme is about the loss of liberty afforded people simply because they have a disability or are of a certain age. Institutions decide a person cannot make decisons most of us take for granted such as what clothes to wear, when to entertain guests, and whether or not to have a plant in our room.

Certainly most of these do not erupt into the violent abuse that cost Michael Nicholson his life. Yet, the rules are abusive and are made without logic and enforced variably.

Prosecutors and law enforcement personnel do not take crimes against people with disabilities seriously because they "do not make good witnesses". Community Now! is an advocacy organization pushing for better enforcement of acts of abuse against those in institutions.

Abuse of Power

Link to Texas Tribune

by Emily Ramshaw
January 20, 2010

State employees fired for abusing Texas’ most profoundly disabled citizens are rarely prosecuted for their acts — even when they’re heinous.

A Texas Tribune review of a decade’s worth of abuse and neglect firings at state institutions for people with disabilities found that just 16 percent of the most violent or negligent employees were ever charged with crimes. Of those, the overwhelming majority had their charges reduced or dismissed; just three percent served jail time. Among the abusive employees who were never charged? An employee who punched and kicked a mentally disabled man, fracturing his ribs and lacerating his liver. An employee who sexually assaulted an immobile resident while he was giving him a bath. And a worker who used his belt to repeatedly whip a disabled resident across the face and mouth.

Elected officials, who have been under pressure from the U.S. Justice Department to improve conditions at Texas’ 13 state-supported living centers, say the lack of prosecutions is troubling — but that they can't force local district attorneys to do it.

Meanwhile, local authorities say institutional abuse cases are particularly tough to prove. The victims often can’t verbalize what happened to them. The eyewitnesses are unreliable. And just because an act of abuse is a fireable offense doesn’t mean it rises to the level of criminal conduct or even gets reported to prosecutors.

Advocacy groups say the investigation suggests a breakdown between state abuse investigators and local authorities. It also confirms their worst fear: that there’s no equal justice for people with disabilities. Unless an abuse case receives widespread media attention, like last year’s “fight club” at the Corpus Christi State School, it rarely warrants criminal charges. “If you’re the most vulnerable citizen in Texas and you’re beaten mercilessly, your perpetrator is not held accountable,” said Jeff Garrison-Tate, whose non-profit Community Now! advocates for the nearly 4,600 disabled Texans living in state institutions. “This is what perpetuates a culture of abuse in this state.”

Roughly 300 state school employees are fired or suspended every year for abusing or neglecting residents in Texas’ state-supported living centers. Since 2000, about 75 employees have been fired for “Class 1 Abuse” — the most serious physical or sexual abuse. An extensive Texas Tribune search of county and state arrest records, indictments and other court filings revealed just 13 of these fired employees were ever charged with crimes for their acts. Of those, two served jail time. Three had their cases dismissed. And seven received lesser charges or deferred adjudication in a plea deal. One case is still pending.

One employee who was fired for inserting a hairbrush in a resident's anus and fondling another resident's breasts was never charged with a crime. Neither was a worker who beat a resident in the face because she wouldn't be quiet. The woman had to be rushed to the emergency room for stitches. In another un-prosecuted case, a staffer slammed a resident face first into a door; the man sustained a head wound that required staples to close.

The Blame Game

Ask state agencies, local police and district attorneys why there are so few prosecutions and the finger pointing begins.

The Department of Aging and Disability Services oversees the state institutions and is responsible for firing abusive employees. But it doesn’t conduct abuse and neglect investigations — the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) does it for them. Officials with DFPS say whenever they get an allegation of serious physical injury, sexual abuse or death, they contact local law enforcement within the hour. If their investigation concludes a crime may have been committed, they’re required to forward their investigative report to local authorities. But DFPS doesn’t track what happens next. And police departments say they don’t always get the reports from the state. In some cases they have opened their own investigations ahead of DFPS.

District attorneys who responded to the Texas Tribune’s interview request say they don’t always get the message — either from the state investigators or from police detectives. There’s a precedent here: During the Texas Youth Commission’s sweeping abuse scandal three years ago, thousands of un-prosecuted abuse complaints were found sitting in file folders in local police departments.

"We really like to prosecute the bad guys, the employees who pick on people in state institutions. There's no problem there," said Rob Kepple, executive director of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. If the prosecutors aren't pursuing cases, "I would surmise we're either not getting them, or they don't rise to the level of a criminal offense."

Even when prosecutors do get the case files, they’re not always able to proceed. In some cases, they say, the act the employee was fired for doesn’t qualify as criminal conduct. In other cases, authorities don’t have the evidence or witnesses to prosecute. And occasionally, when a guilty verdict isn’t a sure bet, they don’t have the resources to make the effort. “Trying to determine who’s the guilty party, and being able to prove they were the ones who inflicted the injuries — that’s especially difficult when you have a victim who is incapacitated,” said Lubbock County District Attorney Matt Powell, whose office has prosecuted more of these Class 1 offenders than any other Texas D.A.'s office. Added Taylor County District Attorney James Eidson:"By their nature, these are pretty much circumstantial cases, which is what makes them so difficult."

And despite the fact that these abusive acts are committed by state employees, inside state-operated institutions, and against people who are sometimes wards of the state, Texas' own attorney general doesn't have the authority to step in. Following the 2007 TYC sexual abuse scandal, and revelations that a West Texas district attorney had failed to prosecute an abusive youth prison administrator, the attorney general's office asked lawmakers for more authority to step in. Lawmakers responded by allowing state prosecutors to offer assistance to local prosecutors. But the attorney general's office still can't intervene to force a prosecution.

"The Legislature has not given the Office of the Attorney General authority to prosecute these cases," said Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. "Only district attorneys have that authority."

But advocates for the disabled say all of these explanations shroud the real reason abusive employees aren’t prosecuted: because their victims can’t demand it. Many are non-verbal or intellectually impaired. Most either don’t have families to advocate for them, or have out-of-town relatives poorly positioned to keep the pressure on local authorities. In short, advocates say, prosecutors know if they don’t make the effort, no one will hold them accountable.

“If someone saw me on the street kicking my dog, I would be in jail,” Garrison-Tate said. “But when a person with a significant disability in our state-operated, taxpayer-funded institutions is beaten, nothing happens to them.”

TOMORROW: Relatives of a disabled man choked and killed in a state school share their struggle for justice.

Keywords:

• Greg Abbott,
• LUBBOCK,
• Disabilities,
• Corpus Christi fight club,
• Family and Protective Services,
• Department of Aging and Disability Services,
• Texas Youth Commission,
• Attorney General's Office