Inclusion Daily Express -- Governor: Rosewood Center Will Close In 18 Months

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Governor: Rosewood Center Will Close In 18 Months
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
January 16, 2008

OWINGS MILLS, MARYLAND--In 1888, the state of Maryland opened the Asylum and Training School for the Feeble Minded at Owings Mills.

The institution, which was renamed Rosewood Center in 1969, will officially close by June 30, 2009.

Governor Martin O'Malley issued a proclamation last week, which he announced Tuesday, ordering the state to shut the facility and move its remaining 153 residents with developmental disabilities to homes in the community.

O'Malley acknowledged "studies overwhelmingly demonstrate that individuals with developmental disabilities thrive and do better living with home and community-based supports" and noted that conditions at the facility have "deteriorated to unacceptable" as shown by a series of state and federal audits. Officials halted new admissions at Rosewood three times last year after investigators revealed ongoing abuse and neglect of the people housed at the facility.

"The decline of this facility is not something that happened recently. It's a decline that has happened in the course of many decades," O'Malley said at a press conference. "To turn around that sort of decline, it was my decision, on balance, after a lot of consideration . . . that we can do a better job of providing the service in different settings than here in Rosewood."

Disability rights groups in Maryland have been calling for years for Rosewood's closure and for the residents to be moved to homes in the community.

"This is a historic day for us," Rachel London, an attorney with the Maryland Disability Law Center, told the Capitol News Service.

Maryland has three other institutions housing people with developmental disabilities. Few, if any, of Rosewood's residents are expected to be transferred to them.

Related:
"State to shutter home for disabled" (Baltimore Sun)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/2008/red/0116a.htm
Rosewood Center; Plan for Services to Residents (Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene)
http://www.ddamaryland.org/Developments/HB970Report.pdf
"Rosewood Center" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/md/rosewood.htm

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