Justice Department files a motion for immediate relief to protect individuals confined in Georgia's hospitals

Jan 30 2010

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division today announced that it has filed a motion for immediate relief to protect individuals confined in seven state-run psychiatric hospitals in Georgia from the imminent and serious threat of harm to their lives, health and safety. The motion, filed late yesterday, seeks appointment of a monitor who will set binding targets and timetables for reducing the number of residents at the hospitals and expanding appropriate community based services.

A year ago, the state of Georgia and the Justice Department entered into an agreement to ensure that individuals in the hospitals were served in the most appropriate integrated settings and that unlawful conditions in the hospitals were remedied. The agreement was filed in United States v. Georgia, and the parties asked U.S. District Judge Charles A. Pannell Jr. to approve the agreement. However, the court has not yet approved the agreement.

The Justice Department has been monitoring conditions in the hospitals and has found that the facilities continue to be dangerous and that hundreds of individuals who could and should be served in the community remain institutionalized and continue to be exposed to dangerous conditions. Georgia continues to fail to serve patients in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs, and preventable deaths, suicides and assaults continue to occur with alarming frequency in the hospitals.

"States responsible for the care of individuals living in state run facilities have a duty to protect them from harm. Individuals in Georgia's hospitals are being subjected to a widespread pattern of violence and are not being protected from preventable deaths," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division. "We need quick action to protect these individuals."

More than a decade ago, in Olmstead v. L.C., the Supreme Court found that Georgia Regional Hospital in Atlanta was impermissibly segregating two individuals with disabilities in that hospital when they could have been served in more integrated settings. The Supreme Court ordered states to serve individuals with disabilities in the most integrated settings appropriate to their needs. In the same hospital involved in that landmark case, and the other six run by Georgia, the state continues to impermissibly segregate hundreds of individuals.

• In addition to the unlawful segregation, individuals in the hospitals are exposed to egregious harm. Some examples include:
• In 2009, the state failed to adequately supervise an individual who had killed previously. The individual assaulted and killed another individual in the hospital.
• In 2008, hospital staff failed to intervene in a fight between individuals. One of the individuals was knocked unconscious and died a few days later from blunt force trauma to the head.
• In 2009, staff failed to adequately supervise an individual who raped another individual.
• In 2009, an individual committed suicide by tipping his bed up and hanging himself from the upended bed. The Justice Department's experts had repeatedly warned hospital staff during on-site visits of the dangers posed by these beds that were not bolted to the floor.
• This month, the state failed to adequately supervise an individual who expressed suicidal thoughts the day before she committed suicide.

The seven hospitals include East Central Regional Hospital, Georgia Regional Hospital at Savannah, Georgia Regional Hospital at Atlanta, Southwestern State Hospital, Central State Hospital, West Central Georgia Regional Hospital and Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital.

The Civil Rights Division is authorized to conduct investigations under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). CRIPA authorizes the Attorney General to investigate conditions of confinement in certain institutions owned or operated by, or on behalf of, state and local governments. In addition to psychiatric hospitals, these institutions include nursing homes, residential facilities serving persons with developmental disabilities, jails, prisons and juvenile correctional facilities. CRIPA's focus is on systemic deficiencies rather than individual, isolated problems. The ADA authorizes the Attorney General to investigate whether a state is serving individuals in the most integrated settings appropriate to their needs.