| En Español |
Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons -- SummaryThe Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997a et seq., authorizes the Attorney General to conduct investigations and litigation relating to conditions of confinement in state or locally operated institutions (the statute does not cover private facilities). Under the statute, the Special Litigation Section investigates covered facilities to determine whether there is a pattern or practice of violations of residents' federal rights (the Section is not authorized to represent individuals or to address specific individual cases).The Section's CRIPA work is generally divided into five areas:
Since the enactment of CRIPA in 1980, the Section has investigated more than 430 facilities in 39 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Territories of Guam and the Virgin Islands. As a result of the Department's CRIPA efforts, tens of thousands of institutionalized persons who were living in dire, often life-threatening, conditions now receive adequate care and services. The Section's institutional work has focused recently on significant problems, such as abuse and neglect in nursing homes and juvenile facilities, sexual victimization of women prisoners, inadequate education in facilities serving children and adolescents, and the unmet mental health needs of inmates and pre-trial detainees. In addition, the Section has been active in enforcing the rights of institutionalized persons with disabilities to receive adequate habilitation and active treatment and to be served in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. Section staff are involved in a broad array of activities to vindicate the federal rights of institutionalized persons. These activities range from reviewing complaints and conducting investigations to monitoring and enforcing court orders, litigating large, complex institutional reform cases, and writing amicus briefs on issues of national import. Section staff work closely with nationally renowned experts to evaluate institutional conditions by touring the facilities, observing relevant practices and procedures at the facilities, evaluating records, and interviewing residents, staff, and other individuals knowledgeable about the conditions at the institutions. To date, the Section has been successful in resolving the vast majority of CRIPA investigations that have uncovered unlawful conditions by obtaining voluntary correction or a judicially enforceable settlement designed to improve conditions to ensure the provision of appropriate services. If state or local officials fail to correct the deficiencies or to agree to an appropriate settlement, CRIPA authorizes the Attorney General to file suit. The Section has concentrated on obtaining widespread relief, where possible. For example, the Section has entered into consent decrees covering 20 juvenile correctional facilities in Puerto Rico, 13 juvenile correctional facilities in Kentucky, 31 juvenile facilities in Georgia, all four mental retardation facilities in Tennessee, all six mental retardation facilities in Puerto Rico, four mental health facilities in Virginia, eight men's prisons in Michigan, five women's prisons in Arizona, two women's prisons in Michigan, and a number of jails throughout Mississippi. Further, the Section has filed a number of enforcement and civil contempt motions to require state officials to comply with consent decrees and other court orders. The Section is actively involved both with other components of the Justice Department as well as other federal agencies that regulate, fund, and provide technical assistance to institutions. For example, Section staff work with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the National Institute of Justice, the Bureau of Prisons, the United States Department of Education, and the United States Department of Health and Human Services. In addition, Special Litigation Section attorneys serve on the Department's Health Care Fraud Working Group, the Inter-Agency Nursing Home Consortium, and the Inter-Agency Abuse Prevention Working Group. For further information, follow the links below:
Updated July 25, 2008
|
-- selected briefs filed in federal court