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11/16/06
By Linda
Strowbridge
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this story to a friend
Editor's
note: This is the second part of a two-part story about the
Rosewood
Center
in Owings Mills. The first part ran last week.
For
20 hours a day every day, he sat in a small room with only a bed, a chair
and a table.
The
room held no wall decorations or personal mementos, no television, no
radio, no work to occupy him. Although he weighed more than 240 pounds, he
had no opportunity to exercise. In fact, the only time he tasted fresh air
was when he stepped from the building into the van that carried him to
doctors' appointments.
He
could play cards with the staff. But his only real reprieve was a two-hour
window each day when everyone else left the building, and he was allowed
into a living room to watch TV by himself.
The
man, who cannot be named, is a resident of
Rosewood
Center
in Owings Mills. And his story falls among the litany of incidents
disability rights activists raise when they argue that Rosewood should be
closed.
Activists
renewed those calls for closure in September, when state inspectors
documented so many incidents of physical abuse and violence at Rosewood
that they threatened to cut the center's Medicaid support. Those reports,
activists argue, are part of a long-standing pattern of civil rights
violations at Rosewood that have stripped residents of basic freedoms and
saddled
Maryland
taxpayers with high bills for care.
History
of rights violations
Established
in the 1800s as an "asylum and training school for the
feeble-minded," Rosewood houses 203 adults and children with serious
developmental disabilities. It also houses individuals who have been
deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial.
In
October, state officials said Rosewood had promptly addressed conditions
that were placing residents in "immediate jeopardy" of harm,
just as they have acted quickly on specific complaints of mistreatment in
the past.
"But
I don't have any confidence that the bad practices are over because of the
history of that facility," said
Rachel London
, a
Disability
Law
Center
attorney who has represented Rosewood residents for two years. "The
underlying issue is continuous rights violations. We have been seeing it
for years and we have complained about it for years, and that's not going
to be fixed."
In
April, a law center report argued that Rosewood was using
"seclusion" to control some residents in ways that violate both
civil rights and federal regulations. Four residents (including the man
described above) were locked in private areas for 16 to 24 hours a day.
In
October, the Maryland State Department of Education determined that
Rosewood and the
Baltimore
County
Public
Schools
had violated federal law by failing to enroll a teenage resident in a
local school for more than a year. Several other Rosewood children had
suffered similar interruptions in their schooling.
In
2002, an investigation of a death at Rosewood concluded the facility was
using physical restraints, especially straitjackets, excessively.
Activists claim such mistreatment continues.
In
September, state inspectors discovered that one resident had been
physically or chemically restrained 14 times between June 19 and Aug. 29.
Center
officials listed other violations in a September letter to Gov. Robert
Ehrlich, including failure to provide basic services and communications to
residents who are deaf or hearing-impaired, and failure to provide basic
skills training to many residents.
Supreme
Court ruling
In
September, five disability rights organizations called on the state to
close Rosewood by December 2008 and move all residents to high-quality,
community-based programs.
"When
you're not here and you don't know everything, it's an easy thing to say,
'close it down,' " said Joanne Knapp, who took over as interim
director of Rosewood in late October.
Rosewood
officials launched extensive efforts this fall to improve conditions at
the facility, which already have sparked a "dramatic decrease"
in the severity of behavior incidents, Knapp said.
However,
Benjamin Dubin, vice chairman of the Baltimore County Commission on
Disabilities, plans to approach legislators in
Annapolis
this January with the same request he makes every year --Ęclose Rosewood.
The
U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that individuals with disabilities have
the right to live in the community with community-based services, Dubin
said.
Community-based
services already support individuals who are as disabled as Rosewood's and
typically give them more opportunities to develop skills, said Brian Cox,
executive director of the Development Disabilities Council.
And,
at a lower cost, Cox said, noting that keeping an individual at a
state-owned center costs $165,000 to $263,000 annually while
community-based care costs $77,000 to $79,000.
Money
for community-based services, however, is scarce. More than 16,000
Marylanders with developmental disabilities are on a waiting list to
receive state financing for community care.
During
his 2002 campaign, Ehrlich declared that it is time "to start closing
state institutions that warehouse people, rob them of their freedom and
waste state taxpayer dollars."
Ehrlich,
however, never acted on requests to close Rosewood, and activists haven't
found another political champion for their cause.
Del.
Bobby Zirkin, who was elected to the state Senate last week, said, "I
do not think Rosewood should be shut down. I believe a particular
population needs that kind of setting, and there are not sufficient
resources in the community to serve them."
Rick
Abbruzzese, a spokesman for Martin O'Malley, said the governor-elect
hasn't developed a position on Rosewood, but will consider one after he
takes office in January.
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