U.S. to sue 6 centers for disabled in state

LITTLE ROCK — The U.S. Department of Justice says Arkansas’ entire system for serving people with developmental disabilities is out of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and began laying the groundwork Wednesday for filing a lawsuit later this week against all six of the state facilities serving those individuals.

In an e-mail sent Wednesday afternoon, Justice Department spokesman Alejandro Miyar confirmed the lawsuit will address the state’s “failure” to meet the requirements of the law as they relate to the developmentally disabled. However, Miyar declined to detail the state’s failures.

The Justice Department’s decision comes as the state is undergoing a review of the system that serves the developmentally disabled population and is considering a report suggesting the hiring of 70 new employees just at the Alexander center.

The federal agency had previously filed a lawsuit against only the Conway Human Development Center, which like the five other human-development centers is home to hundreds of medically fragile, developmentally delayed and mentally retarded children and adults.

In a motion filed in that case Wednesday afternoon, Justice Department lawyers asked to dismiss part of that lawsuit so it could be included in a “statewide” complaint.

The motion noted that after staff visits in March to the Alexander and Arkadelphia centers, the Justice Department had “sufficient” information to “conclude that systemic ADA violations existed statewide.”

Specifically, it mentions concerns that the state is “systemically violating on a statewide basis its ADA obligation to serve individuals ... in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.” That could mean living at home with family or in a smaller, community facility.

The state has countered that there is a need for larger institutional settings and that patients who want to leave them can.

“We’ve not seen the lawsuit yet,” Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe, said Wednesday afternoon. “When we do, it’s not going to surprise us because the Department of Justice has made their intentions pretty clear for a while now. They want to shut down the [state run human-development centers].”

Julie Munsell, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, said her agency had been warned Tuesday that the Justice Department planned to “file something,” but had not been told what it was.

“We’ll just have to wait and see the details of the complaint before we can respond,” Munsell said. “At this point we don’t know what that means.”

Dana McClain, a senior attorney with the Little Rock based Disability Rights Center advocacy group, cheered the decision.

“Yes!” McClain exclaimed when first told about the expected lawsuit. McClain noted that in July, it will have been 20 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed.

“I think it’s a huge deal for the state of Arkansas,” she said of the Justice Department’s decision. “I think it absolutely says the state has not lived up to it obligations.”

DeCample, with the governor’s office, pointed out that the state already is reviewing its system of care for the developmentally disabled and said that won’t stop or change because of the lawsuit.

To that end, Munsell released a report earlier Wednesday from the private company hired to temporarily oversee the Alexander Human Development Center. The report recommended the center hire 70 additional full time employees to properly treat and handle the developmentally disabled men who live there.

New Jersey-based Developmental Disabilities Health Management also urged the Human Services Department - which oversees all the human-development centers - to hire therapists, a dentist and others as contract employees.

The report suggests that the nine types of contract workers spend a total of 560 hours each week at the Saline County center.

Munsell said the recommendations are part of broader analysis of the entire state system for the developmentally disabled and it’s too early to say what the state can afford to consider.

“That’s a substantial increase,” said Munsell, noting that the facility has about 205 employees working there now.

She said her agency has asked the private company to prioritize the list from most to least essential needs. If the state decides to hire new employees, it would do so in priority order.

Munsell acknowledged that putting extra funds toward the Alexander center and toward problems elsewhere in the system isn’t the only solution to a wide array of concerns.

However, she said there is at least one employee that will need to be hired - a superintendent at the Alexander center. The former superintendent, Traci Harris, was placed on leave earlier this year after serious problems were found during an annual inspection.

Munsell confirmed that Harris has become the assistant director of children’s services within the Developmental Disability Services Division.

“Both the leadership and Ms. Harris agreed that she did not have expertise required to address some of the systemic issues faced by the facility,” Munsell said.

“Since then she has returned to an area of DDS where she has, in the past, done great work.”