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

Be there. Really.

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

U.S. official critical of state's living center agreement

Link here to Corrie Maclaggan's Austin American Statesman article

The U.S. Department of Justice's civil rights chief said Friday that an agreement with Texas on fixing state institutions for people with mental disabilities "falls short" on moving people out of the facilities.

"There are just so many people who are being warehoused in these institutions, and I think that's a tragedy," Thomas Perez , assistant attorney general for civil rights , said in an interview in Austin. He was in town to speak at a National Conference of State Legislatures redistricting law seminar.

Last June, the Justice Department and Texas entered into an agreement to improve health care and speed up investigations of abuse and neglect at the 13 facilities now known as state supported living centers. It was the culmination of a federal investigation that began in 2005 at the Lubbock facility after reports of abuse and neglect and later expanded to the other institutions.

Perez, an appointee of President Barack Obama, took office in October — months after the Texas deal was signed. It's not clear whether his objections — which signal a departure from what the Obama administration said at the time the deal was announced — could affect Texas. He said he inherited the agreement and needs "to respect that on a certain level." But now, he said, he'd like to implement far more aggressive agreements with states.

"The paradigm prior to our arrival was: 'Let's just make sure that the facilities are safe,'" he said. "The new paradigm is: 'Question No. 1 — What is your plan for moving eligible people into communities? Step two ... What is your plan for ensuring that the facilities are safe?"

Texas' philosophy, one state official said, "may be a little different."

"In Texas, we support choice," said Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Commission , referring to the options of living in institutions or smaller group homes or enrolling in state programs that help people with disabilities live at home.

Still, the state is committed to ensuring that the population of the institutions continues to decline, said Cecilia Fedorov , a spokeswoman of the Department of Aging and Disability Services. About 4,300 now live in the institutions, down from 5,428 in 2000.

Texas allows people who want to leave state supported living centers to skip over a waiting list for home-based programs, and last year the Legislature expanded the number of spots in home-based programs available to living center residents.

"We need to be doing everything we can to make successful transitions for people who wish to move," Fedorov said.

Perez said that an ideal agreement would have specific numbers of people that the state should move out and timelines of when that should happen.

The Texas agreement requires the state to identify people who want to move out of the institutions, help them make that transition, and make sure their needs are met in their new setting, Fedorov said. But there are no specific numbers on how many people should move out.

Without those specifics, said state Rep. Elliott Naishtat , D-Austin, a member of the House Committee on Human Services, "what we're dealing with is wishful thinking at best."

At the time the agreement was signed, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder praised it.

"The Justice Department is committed to protecting the fundamental rights of all our citizens," Holder said in a June 2009 press release. "This agreement reflects that principle by protecting the civil rights of some of Texas's most vulnerable residents."

In the 1990s, Texas closed two state institutions as part of a lawsuit settlement. Later, the state considered closing more, but after heated hearings, decided not to.

Susan Payne of College Station, whose sister, Diane Ward , lives at Denton State Supported Living Center, said she finds it "very offensive" that Perez would say people are being "warehoused."

"Family members of people who live at the state supported living centers are very, very aware of the options in the community, and the families have chosen this as the best setting," Payne said.

But Perez said that moving people out of institutions is long overdue.

"It's a heck of a lot easier to have everybody in one setting," he said. "But ease should never trump what is right, and what is constitutional."

cmaclaggan@statesman.com; 445-3548

Hate Crimes Request

January 23, 2010

Tom Perez

United States Department of Justice

Criminal Investigation Division

P.O. Box 66018

Washington D.C. 20035-6018

Dear Mr. Perez,

On behalf of Community Now! a Texas statewide advocacy group with a mission to support people with disabilities to live in their communities please accept this sincere and critical request to investigate numerous former Texas state employees who committed horrific acts of violence against residents of several state institutions for people with intellectual disabilities. Upon investigation and if warranted, we sincerely request that those individuals found guilty of criminal acts be charged by the DOJ with Hate Crimes against people with disabilities. It was recently reported in the Texas Tribune (note enclosed article) that since 2000, 75 former employees were fired because of confirmed Class 1 Abuse. This level of abuse is the most heinous and includes sexual and physical assault, murder and gross neglect. Of those 75 individuals, only two were incarcerated for their crimes.

It appears that in Texas there is no justice for sadists who commit violent crimes against our most vulnerable and at risk citizens. The Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS), the agency who operates these facilities points to Adult Protective Services, (APS) the agency that investigates abuse and neglect at these facilities. APS points to local law enforcement and local law enforcement points to the County Prosecutors, and the Prosecutors do little to nothing with these cases. And with everyone pointing fingers at everyone else, people in these facilities are abused without accountability thus sending a clear message to other facility staff that you can get away with murder.

Even with state institution reform legislation passed in the previous Texas Legislative Session (SB 643), it appears that the Ombudsman position with increased oversight authority of these facilities has not been appointed by Governor Perry and even with a network of Ombudsman, there is limited authority by the Texas Attorney General to investigate and prosecute state employees with confirmed Class 1 Abuse if the County Prosecutor is not willing to do so.

As you most likely know, Texas entered into a settlement for numerous civil rights violations investigated by the DOJ CRIPPA division. Currently, the conditions of these facilities are being monitored by the DOJ. Hopefully something will come of this monitoring to ensure the safety of those who live in these facilities. Further, the hope is that the DOJ will ensure Olmstead is honored by closely monitoring the right of residents to leave the facility to live in the community upon their request.

Let me be clear, I am not asking for any further investigation from the DOJ regarding CRIPPA. On behalf of Community Now! we strongly request the immediate investigation and charges of Hate Crimes against those perpetrators of these despicable crimes. I was provided your name by the leadership at the Regional Office of Civil Rights. If you are not the right person to make the decision to investigate these crimes, I implore you to forward this letter to the individual charged with leading Hate Crime investigations at the DOJ with all haste. And if this is not within the authority of the DOJ, please provide me with the contact information of the appropriate person and agency to contact.

I look forward to your prompt response and immediate action to our requests. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

David Wittie, President

CC;

Governor Rick Perry

Lt. Governor David Dewhurst

United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison

United States Senator John Cornyn

United States Representative Lloyd Doggett

State Senator Steve Ogden

State Senator Jane Nelson

State Representative Patrick Rose

State Representative Abel Herrera

---

Hideously Ironic...

So does anyone have any insight as to how the prosecutors do nothing to people who rape and kill those with disabilities, but this man got 100 years?

Teen with 47 IQ gets 100 years in sex abuse case

Case stems from charges involving the fondling of a 6-year-old neighbor (Link)

updated 6:06 p.m. CT, Wed., June 10, 2009

PARIS, Texas - A teenager who has profound mental disabilities was sentenced to 100 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges in a sex abuse case involving his 6-year-old neighbor.

Aaron Hart, 18, of Paris, was arrested and charged after a neighbor found him fondling her stepson in September. The teen pleaded guilty to five counts, including aggravated sexual assault and indecency by contact, and a jury decided his punishment.

Lamar County Judge Eric Clifford decided to stack the sentences against Hart after jurors settled on two five-year terms and three 30-year terms, The Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday. The judge said neither he nor jurors liked the idea of prison for Hart but they felt there was no other option

"In the state of Texas, there isn't a whole lot you can do with somebody like him," Clifford said.

Diagnosed as mentally disabled
Hart has an IQ of 47 and was diagnosed as mentally disabled as a child. He never learned to read or write and speaks unsteadily.

Despite being a target of bullies, he was courteous, well-behaved and earned money by doing chores for neighbors, supporters said. His parents say he'd never acted out sexually.

"He couldn't understand the seriousness of what he did," said his father, Robert Hart. "I never dreamed they would think about sending him to prison. When they said 100 years — it was terror, pure terror, to me."

Jurors said they sent the judge notes during deliberations in February, asking about alternatives to prison, but didn't get a clear answer. They believed the judge would order concurrent sentences, jurors said.

District Attorney Gary Young said he sympathized with Hart's situation but stands by his decision to prosecute on five counts. Prosecutors commonly pursue several charges for a single incident to see which the jury will support.

Diversion program not an option
Young said a diversion program was not an option since the law doesn't allow that for serious felonies.

"I hope people will remember he committed a violent sexual crime against a little boy," he said.

Hart's appellate attorney, David Pearson, said the court-appointed doctor did the bare minimum to assess competency and ran tests geared for mental illness, not mental retardation.

He said an appeal will be filed.

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