State Institutions: Still A Long Way To Go

Among Senator Robert Kennedy's social justice causes were the rights of people with disabilities — initially emanating from his experiences with his own sister Rosemary. It also extended to the then-radical concept that people with disabilities needed deinstitutionalization, that those who could would come out of mammoth state institutions and live among the general population to the greatest extent possible. The standards and practices of state mental health facilities were long in need of a major overhaul.

In 1965, Kennedy and journalist Burton Blatt separately visited New York state institutions to personally investigate and inspect the treatment of people with disabilities. Blatt's findings and photographer Fred Kaplan's compelling, grainy photographs were compiled into the photographic expose ‘Christmas in Purgatory’. The photo essay offered a much clearer assessment of exactly why institutions were detrimental to the well-being of people with disabilities.

Residents were lying in their own feces and banging their heads against walls. The stench from human filth was so bad it clung to clothes after leaving the facilities. The nightmarish imagery from that era is reality in present-day Texas. Abusing their authority, state school staffs across Texas endanger the health and safety of citizens who depend on them for care and support. Institutionalized people with severe disabilities are often not in a position to protest their treatment or leave the facilities and live independently.

Unlike myself and friends (who ourselves would have ended up in these facilities in an earlier era), today’s state school residents likewise lack other options. Institutionalization is their most appropriate accommodation. Abuse is, as it has always been, abhorrent.

From sexual abuse to forced restraint and dehydration, the documented list of abuses is a terrible thing to behold. And this treatment does not comply with the quality of care standards under which the Department of Aging and Disability Services is obligated to operate all of their programs. Yes, DADS disciplines abusive staffers, but efforts thus far have obviously been ineffective. People’s lives remain at risk. We should not have to revisit previous agreements to treat people with disabilities as human beings or wonder why it even remains a point of contention to begin with.

A Lubbock State School resident was left dead on her institution’s floor for hours before paramedics were finally summoned. Another state facility resident was severely scalded in her facility after being unsupervised while using a hot shower. The list goes on. Residents continue to get hurt and die in otherwise completely preventable scenarios. I’m only reiterating a fraction of the documented incidents.

Even before hiring 1,700 new state school employees, DADS must implement a concrete understanding among all current employees on basic principles; that, for instance, nobody should forge agency documents, or abuse others for entertainment. This is common sense ethics — a basic minimum which must be expected of all public-sector employees, expected of all people, but which has seemingly gone unobserved at Texas facilities.

The Justice Department opened an investigation of the Lubbock State School in 2005 for the aforementioned case and numerous others. Abuse incidents give this facility the dubious honor of being among the most troubled in Texas. Disability rights advocates have pressured for closure, arguing that poor care is equivalent to receiving no care.

Considering an unspoken previous reluctance to investigate civil rights cases, when the Justice Department does want to investigate something under the civil rights banner, it’s a sign of rough waters. DADS must acknowledge these obvious problems and work towards a solution.