DOJ Sues Colorado for Disability Civil Rights Violations

The US Dept. of Justice is focusing on the INSTITUTIONALIZED NURSING HOME POPULATION with "PHYSICAL DISABILITIES" in Colorado and alleging Colorado is not providing sufficient HOUSING and SERVICES for them in the Community.

From my perspective, Colorado is a very interesting RICH STATE/POOR STATE budget case.

Not all but a lot of DOJ's Disability Rights Cases are filed in POOR STATES --- Colorado is a VERY AFFLUENT STATE with a RESRICTED STATE BUDGET under TABOR and other measures.

I do believe that the ADA and other Federal Law TRUMP TABOR --- but I don't want to start a CIVIL WAR over it.

DOJ doesn't have the resources to file every ADA case out there and they don't --- I think it is significant that they finally filed against COLORADO.

Federal Reports have shown that there are many people with "MENTAL ILLNESS" institutionalized in Nursing Homes.

• How people FEEL about that depends on the person.
• I am aware of one white young man in SOLITARY with developmental disabilities and mental illness and substance issues in the Denver Jail that came to Colorado because he heard MARIJUANA was legal.
  • Mr. Universe, an older black man in his 50s with mental illness who had been homeless since he was 11 ----
    • begged and begged for me to help this young man until I finally relented.
    • GIVEN the options and there weren't many --- the young man wanted to go to the NURSING HOME.
      • But he really did want to go to the nursing home and it was a lot better than SOLITARY in the Denver Jail.
  • Mr. Universe is now serving over 20 years in a Colorado prison at least in part because he was tagged with "ANTI-SOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER" at CMHIP.
    • I hope the IRONY of that does not escape you --- because it does not escape me.

DOJ ADA Enforcement --- Colorado

See Also

• Department of Health and Human Services

      OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL
      JANUARY 2001 -- OEI-05-99-00700
      YOUNGER NURSING FACILITY
      RESIDENTS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS:
         Preadmission Screening and Resident Review (PASRR) Implementation and Oversight

Especially when it comes to addressing COGNITIVE DISABILITY ---

There's all kinds of COMMONALITY OF INTEREST in more effectively and comprehensively addressing COGNITIVE DISABILITY:

• Brain Injury
• Mental Illness
• Developmental Difference/Disability
• Substance Issues that are often related to one or more of the above.
  

Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law --- March 2022

Complaint --- Sept 2023

We'd like to see DISABILITY LAW COLORADO, Colorado's federally funded Protection & Advocacy Office for People with Disabilities, investigate Colorado's Compliance with Title II of the ADA and Olmstead in relation to:

• Homeless People with Cognitive Disabilities and
  
• Justice-Involved People with Cognitive Disabilities being released from Incarceration.

We'd like that report to be made public as well as delivered to the US Department of Justice.