NCJ Number
166783
Date Published
1997
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This document presents and explains the provisions of the Federal law concerning the civil rights of institutionalized persons; the law gives the Attorney General standing to redress unlawful conditions in publicly operated residential institutions, including juvenile facilities, mental health facilities, jails, and prisons.
Abstract
The law also covers nursing homes and facilities serving people with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities. The law was enacted in 1980 in response to national concern about institutional conditions. It covers all 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States territories, counties, and cities. The law focuses on systemic deficiencies rather than individual, isolated problems. Investigations are initiated by complaints from parents, residents, staff, advocates, media reports. United States attorneys, and other sources. Expert consultants, attorneys, and paralegals conduct investigations. They gather information by means of tours of facilities and observations of conditions; interviews with administrators, staff, residents, relatives, and advocates; and reviews of records and other documents. Resolution occurs most frequently through a consent decree filed in Federal court detailing the remedial steps the jurisdiction agrees to take.