Inclusion Daily Express -- Governor's Plan To Keep Facility Open Prompts Feds To Issue Scathing Report

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Governor's Plan To Keep Facility Open Prompts Feds To Issue Scathing Report
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
April 19, 2007

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI--The U.S. Department of Justice has released a report that strongly criticizes the state of Missouri for the treatment of residents with intellectual disabilities at Bellefontaine Habilitation Center.

The report, released April 11, documented incidents of abuse and neglect at the state-run facility when federal investigators visited in late 2005 and early 2006. Those included incidents in which staff members beat residents with their fist, a belt, and a fly swatter; workers allowed "inappropriate sexual contact" between residents; and administrators failed to adequately provide individualized plans for each resident's needs.

Wan J. Kim, the head of the Justice Department's Office for Civil Rights, concluded: "In our judgment, Bellefontaine is not safe."

Justice Department officials had not planned on issuing the report because in January 2005 Governor Matt Blunt proposed closing the institution and moving its residents into homes in the community.

But last month, Blunt announced that he was reversing that decision, and instead plans to keep the 83-year-old facility open. The governor's new plan would keep a state-operated program on the site to house 24 residents considered to have the most severe needs, while a private contractor would oversee services for another 120 residents. A new 12-bed crisis unit would also be established on the BHC campus.

The state has 49 days to address the problems at the institution or face the possibility of a federal lawsuit and the potential forced closure of the facility.

Related:
"Feds fuel fight over state-run center's future" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/07/red/0420g.htm
"Bellefontaine Habilitation Center" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/mo/bellefontaine.htm

Copyright © 2007 Inonit Publishing
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