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PATERSON, NJ, Jan. 30, 2002 --The owners of six private institutions have been
accused of stealing $3.6 million from local public school districts, by
setting up bogus jobs for friends and relatives.
Daniel Greco, 45, and Philip Scardilli, 51, are the cofounders and operators
of the Windsor Schools, six institutions that specialize in serving students
with disabilities from local public schools.
Attorney General David Samson on Monday charged Greco and Scardilli with
giving "no-show" jobs paying up to $150,000 to their wives, brothers and
in-laws. From 1995 to 2000, the owners handed out paychecks to seven friends
and relatives who did not show up to work, came in for minimal hours or did
not do what they were paid to do, Samson said yesterday.
Those seven face conspiracy and theft charges and could face sentences of 10
years in prison and fines of $150,000 each.
Windsor Schools served 342 students last year. Tuition of up to $30,000 for
each child was paid by the public schools.
OAKLAND, CA, Jan. 28, 2002 -- Avery Russell, is tired of living at Agnews
Developmental Center, an institution housing hundreds of people with
developmental disabilities.
"I want to be on my own," said Russell, 45. "I'd be happy to be on my own."
Last Friday, Russell and 11 other people living in California's institutions
and large care facilities filed a class-action lawsuit against the state and
its 21 regional centers, demanding to be allowed to live in the community.
Protection and Advocacy, Inc. filed the suit also on behalf of Capitol
People First, Arc California, and California Alliance for Inclusive
Communities (CAIC). Two California taxpayers who are also disability rights
advocates have joined the suit, claiming that the state has illegally spent
tax dollars by failing to provide community supports for people with
developmental disabilities in violation of federal law.
The suit names as defendants the California Health and Human Services
Agency, the Department of Developmental Services (DDS), the Department of
Health Services (DHS), the Department of Finance and the directors of each
department. It also lists the state's 21 Regional Centers that contract with
DDS to provide services to people with developmental disabilities.If it is
accepted as a class action, it could impact hundreds or thousands of people
currently living in institutions or those who might be at risk of being
moved into them.
California houses nearly 4,000 people with developmental disabilities in
expensive, outdated institutions, here called "developmental centers". About
25 percent of the state's entire developmental disabilities budget is spent
on the 2 percent that are in these facilities. Yet the state has made little progress in moving people into the community in
the 30 months since the U.S. Supreme Court's Olmstead decision, which found
that institutionalizing people "unnecessarily" violates the Americans with
Disabilities Act.
"It's about quality of life," said Pat Napoliello of Arc California, whose
21-year-old son lives in his own apartment with an assistant. "It's about
the right to choose where to go on the weekend, what to watch on TV, what to
eat, when to go to bed."
Several Bay Area newspapers ran articles on the suit. The
San Jose Mercury News's is at
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/disabled26a.htm
For background on California's move to the community, check out this
Inclusion Daily Express web page:
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/community/caaroner.htm
January 25, 2002 -- WASHINGTON, DC--The Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act, commonly known
as MiCASSA, was introduced Wednesday as HR 3612.
The bipartisan legislation would allow people who are eligible for Medicaid
to use their benefits to purchase community supports such as personal
attendants. Its passage would signal a radical move from the current system
in which most Medicaid funds go to institutions and nursing homes. If it
becomes law, MiCASSA would also put the choices for services into the hands
of those who receive services.
MiCASSA is not new. Five years ago, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
introduced the measure as HR 2020. Last August, it was introduced to the
Senate by Senators Tom Harkin (D.-IA), Ted Kennedy (D.-MA), Hillary Rodham
Clinton (D.-NY), Joseph Biden (D.-DE) and Arlen Specter (R.-PA) as S. 1298.
Many disability rights groups have championed MiCASSA. One of those is
ADAPT, which has more information on MiCASSA at this webpage:
http://www.adapt.org/casaintr.htm
You can join thousands of MiCASSA supporters by filling out this form:
http://www.adapt.org/casa/support.htm
In 1994 Kansas passed the Sexually Violent Predator Act to allow the commitment of sex criminals who are ruled incompetent or insane or who have served their sentences.
Michael Crane appealed his commitment.
The Kansas Supreme Court, citing the U. S. Supreme Court ruling in Kansas v Hendricks, found that because no one had shown that Crane was unable to control his dangerous behaviour, his commitment was unconstitutional; Kansas appealed.
In its ruling Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed that the state doesn't have to show that Crane is unable to control his behavior; proof that he has serious difficulty controlling it is enough.
Justice Breyer, in the majority opinion, wrote that "Insistence upon absolute lack of control would risk barring the civil commitment of highly dangerous persons suffering severe mental abnormalities."
On the other hand, Kansas hadn't demonstrated that Michael Crane had any problems with control, so the question of his commitment is heading back to the Kansas courts.
The ruling doesn't address whether people can be confined solely because they've been identified as mentally abnormal, but because civil commitment may not be used to as a deterrent to crime, Kansas needs to be clear as to why Michael Crane, unlike many other dangerous people, should not be dealt with only by the legal system.
To read the decision for yourself: http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-957.ZO.html
The Service Employees International Union has had a history of pushing for benefits for workers in nursing homes; nationwide, the union has mostly ignored in-home services workers (See "Stuck at the Nursing Home Door"). That's just what happened in New York last week. In-home services workers "were shut out of the state's three-year plan to funnel $1.8 billion of government Medicaid money into retention and recruitment efforts that will result in better-than-inflation raises for many," reported the Jan. 21 Buffalo News. The result, say those involved in the "home care" industry, means that workers will leave positions to go work in nursing homes, where they can get better-paying jobs. "With other health care people now being paid more, it is going to be even harder for home care to survive," said Manhattan's Richard Gottfried, a member of the state assembly. Read The Buffalo News's "Home care ignored in bailout." Editorial Blasts State For Lack Of Community Resources by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express Email News Service. Chicago, Jan. 22, 2002 --There are an estimated 4,000 people with developmental disabilities waiting for community-based residential services in Illinois. But the state has no waiting list. Why? "There is no waiting list because officials at the state Department of Human Services decline to keep one. Legislators repeatedly refuse to mandate such a list," according to an opinion piece that ran in Monday's Chicago Tribune. Why? "Nobody wants to acknowledge that there's a severe lack of housing in Illinois for those with developmental and mental disabilities." Why? "Because then somebody would have to do something about it . . . And that would be expensive," reads the editorial. But so is the way things are going now. Currently the state spends one-third of its developmental disabilities budget to house 3,200 people in Illinois' nine large institutions. "It costs nearly $100,000 to house someone in an Illinois institution for a year, compared with roughly $40,000 in a supervised neighborhood home. . . Illinois is not making the best use of its money." Read the Chicago Tribune editorial. Charleston, SC cuts bus service to disabled riders CHARLESTON, SC, Jan. 21, 2002 -- Charleston's bus system plans to cut service to hundreds of disabled beginning March 1. The Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority told reporters it would no longer provide its "Tel-A-Ride" service beyond a minimum area that it said was mandated by the federal governmen -- saving an estimated $300,000 annually "I can't believe it," Louise Burne told the Charleston Post & Courier. "I'm not one to use the word 'discrimination,' but is it? I don't know." Bus system head Howard Chapman told the paper the bus system faded a $350,000 Currently, Tel-A-Ride users pay $2. But each trip cost the bus system nearly $20, Chapman said. That cost could be passed on to riders to pay, but Chapman told reporters he thought few riders could afford to pay that much.
Developer to Pay $42,000 for Ignoring Access by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express Email News Service. POCATELLO, IDAHO, Jan. 16, 2001 -- An Idaho developer has agreed to pay $42,000 in damages and penalties, and to build new accessible apartment units, after admitting to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that it discriminated against people with disabilities when it built a Pocatello apartment complex. According to a statement released Wednesday by the Justice Department, Allan Horsley and Horsley Construction had been charged with violating the federal Fair Housing Act when building the 12-unit Elms Apartments. Horsley admitted that six-inch steps made the common areas and routes through the complex inaccessible. The builder also admitted that the doorways, hallways and some rooms were too narrow for wheelchairs; light switches, electrical outlets, and thermostats were placed in inaccessible locations; and bathroom walls lacked reinforcements to allow for the installation of grab bars. Under the agreement, Horsley agreed to pay $10,000 to a person using a wheelchair who wanted to live at the Elms but was unable to do so, and $14,000 to others who were discriminated against at the complex. Horsley also agreed to build 16 new accessible units in Pocatello, and to pay $4,000 to the Intermountain Fair Housing Council which had filed the original complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Information on the laws concerning accessible housing are available at the HUD website: http://www.hud.gov/groups/disabilities.cfm Proposal Would Keep People From Filing "Wrongful Birth" Lawsuits by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express Email News Service.
PARIS, FRANCE, Jan. 16, 2002 --The French National Assembly passed a bill Thursday that
lawmakers say would stop people with disabilities from filing so-called
"wrongful birth" lawsuits against doctors for allowing them to be born. The
proposal now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to become law before
the end of February. More. The class-action lawsuit, filed in July, 2000, charges the city with violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to provide community-based services for individuals who would prefer to live at home rather than in institutions. "This is the second time the city tried to have this lawsuit thrown out," said plaintiffs' attorney Buckmaster deWolf . "The plaintiffs have waited long enough. It is time to move forward with this case." San Francisco had also filed an earlier motion to dismiss the lawsuit, but U. S. District Court Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong denied that motion last August. Laguna Honda Hospital, the largest publicly-owned nursing home in the country, became the focus of national attention in October, when hundreds of demonstrators from California and around the country rallied on its grounds. They demanded that the city and state spend long term care dollars on community-based services, rather than rebuilding Laguna Honda for an estimated $450 million. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Laguna Honda for possible violations of the ADA. |
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