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quick, once-a-day look at disability rights, self-determination
and the
movement toward full community inclusion around the world.
Friday, January 23, 2004
Year V, Edition 863
Today's front page features 9 news and information items,
each preceded by a number (#) symbol.
Click on the"Below the Fold"
link at the bottom of this page for 36 more news items.
QUOTES OF THE DAY:
"We've had a nation that's addicted to
incarceration, and it's time to stop."
--Jaime Fellner, author of "Ill
Equipped," a recently-released report which examines the high numbers of people
with mental illness in U.S. correctional facilities (Fifth story)
"It is a matter of love, compassion and justice."
--Rev. Brett
Webb-Mitchell, pastor of St. John's Presbyterian Church in Durham, North
Carolina, who hopes more faith communities will welcome people with
disabilities (Sixth story)
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# ACCESSIBILITY / LAWS
New Hampshire Cracks Down On Illegal
Parkers
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
January 23,
2004
CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE--While it may be true that a picture paints
a thousand words, in New Hampshire a picture could cost you $250.
According to a brief item in the Concord Monitor, a new state law allows people with disabilities to snap pictures of cars that have parked illegally in designated accessible parking spaces -- then submit the photos with sworn statements to police.
Police will track down the drivers and issue tickets for the violations.
While individual cities have passed similar laws allowing people with disabilities to assist in catching parking violators, New Hampshire is believed to be the first state to enact such a measure.
"I'm going to spread the idea across the countryside," said Mike Dugan, president of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, who was visiting New Hampshire this week. "I think it's worth emulation."
Another new law will fine drivers $50 for parking in the buffer area between accessible spaces, which is usually marked with yellow crosshatches. The old laws had not made it clear that the buffer zone was off-limits.
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# ACCESSIBILITY / LAWS
New Board Appointee Prompts City Hall
To Make Old Chamber Accessible
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily
Express
January 23, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA--In 1999, when San
Francisco's City Hall underwent a $300 million renovation and restoration,
designers were applauded for how they made the historic building accessible to
people with disabilities. All of the entrances into the 88-year-old building
were made wheelchair-accessible, along with the offices, bathrooms and public
hearing rooms.
Even the mayor's private shower is accessible.
It appeared that perhaps the only place not made accessible was the president's dais in the Board of Supervisors chamber, which could only be reached by climbing a set of five stairs. State preservation authorities gave city officials special permission to leave the raised platform as it was, with the understanding that the accessibility problem would be corrected later on.
That time has come.
Mayor Gavin Newsom has appointed Michela Alioto-Pier to replace him as District 2 supervisor. Alioto-Pier uses a wheelchair because she is paralyzed below her waist.
Even though she isn't the board president, supervisors often meet with the president at his desk, or replace the president when he or she is absent.
Susan Mizner, acting director of the Mayor's Office on Disability, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the platform will now be made accessible, whether or not Alioto-Pier requests it.
---
# INSTITUTIONS
Brewer Center Nears
Closure Date
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
January 23,
2004
DAPHNE, ALABAMA--In just a few short weeks, the Albert P. Brewer
Developmental Center will close its doors.
Only nine residents were still in the facility Friday, after seven others boarded vans taking them to William D. Partlow Developmental Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The rest are expected to move within the next 10 days, and the facility to close on March 1.
Five short months ago, Governor Bob Riley approved a plan to close Brewer, along with Lurleen Wallace Developmental Center and J.S. Tarwater Developmental Center, and move the residents to Partlow, group homes or to live with their families. The plan also called for closing three nursing homes housing people with mental illness, along with the Thomasville Rehabilitation Center.
The governor said the consolidation will save the state about $30 million.
According to the Mobile Register, John Ziegler, a spokesperson for the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, explained Thursday that leaving the institutions gives people the chance to live more independently.
"Greater independence is always a good thing for persons with mental retardation," Zeigler said. "Living in the community always affords that opportunity."
The current move is, in part, a consequence of what is known as the Wyatt Settlement, from a 1970s lawsuit that was finally settled in 2000. Under that settlement, Alabama agreed to move 300 people with mental retardation and 300 people with mental illness into more independent living arrangements in the community by September of last year.
The closure of Brewer Center may mark the end a dark period for people with developmental disabilities in state facilities. The institution became the focus of at least nine lawsuits related to abuse and neglect of its residents in recent years. In June 2001, the president of a pro-institution parent group sued the state and former employees of Brewer Center after her daughter suffered an attack by hundreds of poisonous fire ants.
Related:
"Trouble in Alabama's Institutions: Albert P. Brewer
Developmental Center" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/al/brewer.htm
---
# EDUCATION
Prospective Chef Gets Support From
Community
January 23, 2004
FALMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS--When Tracey
Newhart graduated from Falmouth High School on January 8, she expected to move
on to the culinary program at Johnson & Wales University in Providence,
Rhode Island.
Tracey, 21, is an award-winning cook. She wants to be a chef.
According to Friday's Cape Cod Times, the university will not accept Tracey, who has Down syndrome, because she was not given a state-recognized diploma.
She was not given the diploma, because she did not pass the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) math and English exams.
According to school officials, Tracey had not been prepared to take the exams because state officials said that, since she was 17 when she entered high school, she did not have to pass the MCAS. By the end of her sophomore year, however, the state had changed its policy, requiring all students in her graduating class to pass the exam in order to get a diploma.
State education officials deny that there had been a policy change.
Now Tracey and her family are finding support from lawyers, a restaurant operator, and a state lawmaker who hope the university, the high school, or the state will have a change of heart.
Related article:
"Support flourishes for prospective chef" (Cape
Cod Times)
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/supportflourishes21.htm
---
# INSTITUTIONS
Study Finds More People With Mental Illness In
U.S. Prisons Than Institutions
January 23, 2004
LOUISVILLE,
KENTUCKY--According to a Human Rights Watch report released in October 2003,
there are three times as many men and women with mental illness in U.S. prisons
as in mental health hospitals.
The report, entitled "Ill Equipped", found that one in six U.S. prisoners has a mental illness, a rate that is three times higher than the general population.
"Prisons have become the nation's primary mental health facilities," said the report's co-author Jamie Fellner.
Unfortunately, the prison system is in many ways the worst place for people who have mental illness. One reason is that they are much more likely than other prisoners to face punishment because of their behavior. Another is that the prison system is not prepared -- nor funded -- to deal with mental illness.
Related:
"The New Institutions" (Snitch.com)
http://www.snitch.com/000735.html
"Mentally
Ill Mistreated in Prison" (Human Rights Watch)
http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/10/us102203.htm
"Ill-Equipped:
U.S. Prisons and Offenders with Mental Illness" (Human Rights
Watch)
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/usa1003/
---
# CONGREGATIONS
"Faith Groups Reach Out To
Disabled"
January 23, 2004
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA--The following
three paragraphs are excerpts from an article in Friday's News &
Observer:
Those most experienced with developmental disabilities say that churches and faith communities have lagged far behind the government and other civic organizations when it comes to inclusion. Walk into most churches, they say, and count the worshippers you see with cerebral palsy, autism, Down syndrome and other developmental disabilities. They are noticeably absent.
"Because of poor education in the church and the lack of sensitivity of pastors and lay leaders, it's a problem," said the Rev. Brett Webb-Mitchell, pastor of St. John's Presbyterian Church in Durham and the author of "Unexpected Guests at God's Banquet -- Welcoming People with Disabilities in the Church."
"Some churches are really trying hard, but it will take parents getting really uptight, not advocating once but over and over again," Webb-Mitchell said. "It's also up to those people with disabilities who are self-advocates, who can network with the goal of opening churches' doors for fuller inclusion. It is a matter of love, compassion and justice."
Entire article:
"All inclusive worship" (News &
Observer)
http://newsobserver.com/features/story/3263922p-2917370c.html
Related
article:
"Faith groups reach out to disabled" (News &
Observer)
http://newsobserver.com/features/story/3263929p-2917281c.html
---
# TODAY'S FEATURED WEBSITE
Dan Keplinger: King Gimp Virtual
Gallery
http://www.hbo.com/kinggimp/gallery/index.html
---
# EXPRESS EXTRA!!! From the Inclusion Daily Express Archives -- One year ago:
ABUSE / FAMILIES
Advocates Vow To Continue Push For 'Matthew's
Law'
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
January 23,
2003
TRENTON, NEW JERSEY--Supporters of "Matthew's Law" say they are not
ready to give up their fight after a legislative committee did a "bait and
switch" on the important human rights bill last week.
Last Thursday, a state Senate and General Assembly committee was to hold public hearings on "Matthew's Law Limiting The Use of Restraints", otherwise known as Assembly Bill No. 2855, which Assemblymen Eric Munoz and Guy Gregg introduced last October.
The law was named for Matthew Goodman, a 14-year-old with autism who died last February following several months of mechanical and chemical restraints in a New Jersey residential facility. The bill would have strongly limited the use of restraints and other aversive practices on adults and children with developmental disabilities and brain injuries to emergency situations only. It had been drafted with substantial input from parents and other advocates concerned about the number of injuries and deaths related to the use and overuse of such restraints in facilities around the state.
It would have applied to all privately and publicly-funded facilities.
One of those testifying was Janice Roach, Matthew's mother. Another was Rick Tallman, a Trenton resident whose 12-year-old son, Jason, died just two days after being placed at a Pennsylvania residential treatment facility in May 1993.
Others included representatives from disability-related organizations such as The Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities of the Robert Woods Johnson Medical School, New Jersey Protection and Advocacy, Cerebral Palsy of New Jersey, The Statewide Parent Advocacy Network of New Jersey (SPAN), New Jersey TASH, and The Family Alliance to Stop Abuse and Neglect.
But when the advocates arrived to testify, they learned that A2855 had been substituted -- just two days earlier -- with A2849, a "compromise bill" that looked nothing like the original. The bill would change very little, according to those who had supported the original measure.
After seven hours of heart-wrenching testimony the committee went ahead and passed the compromise bill. Then sponsors of the compromise measure offered to name it "Matthew's Law".
Roach turned down the offer. In a statement released Wednesday, Roach said she would not lend her son's name to a bill that she believes would "perpetuate the suffering he endured."
Following the committee's vote, Assemblymen Munoz and Gregg demanded that their names be removed from A2849.
"The die was already cast, the decision pre-determined, the hearing just for show," said Diana Autin, Executive Co-Director for SPAN of New Jersey. "We stand with thousands of parents, advocates, and children, youth, and adults with disabilities today in expressing our disappointment in the Committee substitute bill allowing the continued use of restraints and aversives in New Jersey's public and private institutions."
"But we will not mourn, we will organize!" Autin added. "And Matthew's Law will become law."
Roach is determined to make sure no more children die the way her son did.
"Then Matthew's death will not be in vain," said Roach. "We parents will never give up until Matthew's Law is passed."
Related resources:
Pass Matthew's Law
http://matthewslaw.bravepages.com/
Text of Assembly Bill No. 2855, "Matthew's Law" (State of New Jersey
Legislature)
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2002/Bills/A3000/2855_I1.PDF
(Note: Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Rick Tallman's Testimony from January 16, 2003
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/institutions/nj/testimony.htm
Matthew's Law & Bancroft School (Inclusion Daily
Express)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/nj/bancroft.htm
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---
# BELOW THE FOLD
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http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/04/btf/01230443.htm
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