JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FINDS CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AT ARKANSAS DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY FACILITY

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced the results of its investigation into the conditions at Conway Human Development Center (“Conway”), in Conway, Arkansas. The Department found substantial civil rights violations in the care provided to the residents of Conway. The Department’s findings were transmitted in a letter from R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, to Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

Today’s findings letter concludes a 17-month investigation, opened in November 2002, into the terms and conditions of residency at Conway. The facility provides care for approximately 550 residents with developmental disabilities such as mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and autism, ranging in age from 11 to 66. The investigation found evidence of egregiously deficient, and at times life threatening, medical care, as well as deficient physical and nutritional management and therapy services. The text of the letter is available on the Justice Department’s website at www.usdoj.gov/crt/split/findsettle.htm <http://www.usdoj.gov>.

“Residents of such facilities are among our most vulnerable citizens, and all too often lack voice or representation in our public processes,” said R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. “We will ensure respect for their civil rights.”

According to the allegations in the findings letter, the investigation revealed that over the three months prior to her death, one resident experienced more than eight separate episodes of significant bleeding at the site of her colostomy bag, sometimes in amounts sufficient to spill blood onto her legs and soak her clothing. Yet, according to the letter, Conway staff failed to address the bleeding. The Department also found evidence that the facility’s neurological care was critically deficient. A majority of Conway residents suffer from seizure disorders, yet the manner of prescribing anti-convulsant medications at Conway may in some instances have actually worsened residents’ seizure disorders. Especially disturbing was Conway’s failure to develop an accountable system for investigating resident deaths, particularly in light of the facility’s identified deficiencies.

In addition to deficient medical care, the investigation also identified inadequate special education services provided to school-aged residents in violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Actual daily instruction time was extremely limited, in some cases lasting as little as six minutes, and the content of class instruction was not educational. Finally, the Department alleges that some Conway residents were not being treated in the most integrated setting appropriate to their individualized needs, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. A number of residents have lived at Conway for most of their lives without the state ever making any meaningful attempt to determine whether they could function in a more appropriate setting. Other residents previously identified for community placement, in some cases decades ago, have never been transferred back into the community.

The Civil Rights Division conducted its investigation pursuant to the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980 (“CRIPA”). This statute authorizes the Attorney General to investigate and root out systemic abuses such as those identified here. Since 2001, the Department of Justice has opened 43 similar investigations into nursing homes, mental health facilities, juvenile justice facilities, prisons and residences for persons with developmental disabilities. This figure represents more than double the investigations initiated over the preceding three years.

More information about the Special Litigation Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division can be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/split/index.html.

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