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Trouble In Alabama's Institutions: Lurleen B. Wallace Developmental Center

2003
April 23: Alabama Consolidation Means Three Institutions Will Close
July 7: Sawyer Plan Calls For Closing Alabama Institutions
2002
May 30: Institution Faces Closure After Resident's Strangulation Death
September 18: Wallace Employees Arrested In Connection With Strangulation Death
2000
December 12: Facility Staff Member Cleared On Abuse Charges

Facility Staff Member Cleared On Abuse Charges
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
December 11, 2000
HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA--In the early afternoon of April 12, 1997, a staff member at Lurleen B. Wallace Developmental Center noticed that resident Ronny Jenkins had some bruising on his genitals. In fact, as it turned out, the extent of the injury was so severe that doctors had to surgically remove one of Jenkins' testicles.

After an investigation Eric Bernard McDaniel, 30, was charged with abusing Jenkins.

Because Jenkins has mental retardation and does not talk, assistant attorney general Paul Matthews, who prosecuted the case against McDaniel, based the claims largely on circumstantial evidence:

But last Monday, a jury spent just 20 minutes deliberating before coming up with a "not guilty" verdict. McDaniel's defense attorney Brian White said he believed the decision was reached because four Wallace Center staff members testified that they did not notice any injury to Jenkins' genitals when they saw him unclothed on the night of April 11 and the morning of April 12.

Dr. Jim Finch, director of the Wallace Center, told the Huntsville Times that it is too early to say if there will be further investigation into who hurt Jenkins.

Ronny's mother, Anita Jenkins, said she still believes the evidence points to McDaniel. She is suing McDaniel, the state Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, Virginia Rogers, commissioner of mental health at the time of the injury, and Kathy Sawyer, the current commissioner.

"The whole trial was about blaming Ronny," Anita Jenkins said.

The suit is scheduled for late March. Jenkins' attorney is optimistic they will win that civil suit because they will be able to force McDaniel onto the witness stand -- an advantage they did not have during the criminal trial.

Wallace Center has a documented history of rapes, injuries and deaths of residents by staff members.

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Wallace Employees Arrested In Connection With Strangulation Death
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
September 18, 2002

DECATUR, ALABAMA--Two former employees of a state-operated institution were arrested Tuesday on homicide charges in connection with the strangulation death of a woman who died at the facility this spring.

Barbara Siniard, 33 and Carolyn Sims, 54, were indicted by a grand jury last Friday for criminally negligent homicide, which carries a maximum sentence of twelve months, and elder abuse and neglect which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. They remained in jail early Wednesday on $10,000 bond each.

Both were staff workers at Lurleen B. Wallace Developmental Center, an institution housing 117 people with mental retardation on April 15 of this year.

The body of Carol Diane Saint, 50, was found in her bed before dawn that morning. Investigators first believed Saint died of natural causes, but autopsy results later revealed that she died of strangulation. The autopsy report did not indicate whether Saint was deliberately strangled or if she accidentally choked to death.

Reviewers with the Alabama Department of Public Health's Bureau of Health Provider Standards revealed that several employees admitted falling asleep on the job the night Saint died. They also found that alarm systems had been disabled throughout the building, and that at least two residents had tried to choke residents and staff members in the past.

Wallace Developmental Center has been threatened with closure and has been sued several times in recent years because of abuse, neglect and deaths. In the last six years, five residents at the center have died under unusual circumstances.

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Institution Faces Closure After Resident's Strangulation Death
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
May 30, 2002

DECATUR, ALABAMA--The Alabama Medicaid Agency announced last week that the Lurleen B. Wallace Developmental Center will lose its Medicaid funding on June 20. The institution, which houses 117 people with mental retardation and employs nearly 400 workers, relies on Medicaid for $12 million of its $18 million annual budget.

The decision came after an investigation into the death of 50-year-old resident Carol Diane Saint. A preliminary autopsy report concluded that Saint was strangled to death in her bed before dawn April 15.

A review by the Alabama Department of Public Health's Bureau of Health Provider Standards reviewed that an employee admitted falling asleep on the job about 1:15 a.m. on April 15. It also found that alarm systems had been disabled throughout the building, and that at least two residents had tried to choke residents and staff members in the past.

Wallace Developmental Center has been threatened with closure in recent years because of poor care and abuse of residents.

Kathy Sawyer, head of the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, told five legislators Wednesday that the institution would likely close unless Medicaid officials reverse themselves.

The following link should redirect you to a story from the Huntsville Times on Wallace Center and Sawyer's meeting with lawmakers:
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/red/02/0530a.htm

Alabama Consolidation Means Three Institutions Will Close
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
April 23, 2003

MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA--Alabama officials plan to close three state-run institutions housing people with mental retardation and leave only one operating.

Kathy Sawyer, head of the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, sent a letter last Friday to state legislators and relatives of people in the institutions announcing that she proposes to close the Lurleen Wallace Developmental Center, the J.S. Tarwater Developmental Center and the Albert P. Brewer Developmental Center and move the residents into the William D. Partlow Developmental Center in Tuscaloosa.

The four facilities house a total of around 350 adults. Many of the facilities are less than half-full but are still expensive to operate. Wallace Center, for example, once housed more than 300 people but now houses just 69. The Brewer Center currently houses 61 residents.

The current plan is 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 2003. Two years ago there were 632 people in the four state-operated facilities.

Sawyer's plan calls for closing one nursing home housing seniors with mental illness and relocating two others. Seventy-two long-term care beds at an institution for people with mental illness will also be relocated.

"The bottom line is, as the nature of mental health has shifted to quality, community-based care, there's less need for large institutional campuses," said John Ziegler, a spokesman for the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.

Two of the institutions have been targeted for closure in part because residents were mistreated.

Brewer Center has become the focus of at least nine lawsuits related to abuse and neglect of its residents. In June 2001, the president of a pro-institution parent group sued the state and former employees of the Brewer Center where her daughter suffered an attack by poisonous hundreds of biting fire ants.

In the last six years, five residents at Wallace Center died under unusual circumstances. In 1996, a resident wandered onto the highway in front of the center and was killed by a car. Two years later, a resident drowned in a bathtub even though the staff knew he had a seizure disorder and should not have been left alone while bathing. Another resident died of natural causes, although a preliminary probe showed the person had been beaten. Last year, the family of one Wallace Center resident sued the state claiming she died of injuries suffered in a fall while being attacked in August 2000.

Last September, two former employees of Wallace Center were charged with homicide in connection with the strangulation death of a resident who died at the facility in the spring of 2002.

Related articles:
"Six mental health facilities to be shut in consolidation" (Birmingham News)

http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/03/red/0423a.htm

"Brewer Center to close" (Mobile Register)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/03/red/0423b.htm

"Suit warned if Wallace Center closes" (Huntsville Times)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/03/red/0423c.htm

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Sawyer Plan Calls For Closing Alabama Institutions
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
July 7, 2003

MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA--Last Wednesday, Mental Health Commissioner Kathy Sawyer submitted an 85-page report to Governor Bob Riley outlining how the state should close three of its four institutions housing people with developmental disabilities, along with several psychiatric facilities.

The governor is expected to make a decision in a few weeks. Riley's office has indicated that he supports Sawyer's plan.

"This is one of those rare circumstances in state government where we have the opportunity to save millions of dollars and improve services," Riley's Press Secretary David Azbell said.

Under Sawyer's plan the state would shut down the Lurleen Wallace Developmental Center in Decatur, the Albert Brewer Developmental Center in Daphne and the J.S. Tarwater Developmental Center in Wetumpka. Residents would either move to the W.D. Partlow Center in Tuscaloosa, or to group homes, or to their family homes with new supports from the state.

Sawyer, along with other current and former officials, have said that closing some of Alabama's institutions is inevitable because the trend toward smaller, community-based settings has left large facilities half-empty and too expensive to operate.

In her report, Sawyer says her plan will save the state $21 million over two years. She said the savings could be used to reduce a 2,000-person waiting list for community-based services.

The institutions' campuses are being eyed by the Pardons and Paroles department to help the crowded state prison system.

Related article:
"State may close institutions, transfer inmates" (Birmingham News)

http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/03/red/0707a.htm

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