Open Letter to Governor Jerry Brown:
It can take a tragedy to remind me of how truly vital our work is at PathPoint.
On April 7, a report was issued by the Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley, California, as a follow up to its 2012 exposé on uninvestigated/unpunished crimes against residents of California’s state hospitals for people with developmental disabilities. In its earlier report, the Center for Investigative Reporting's data was based on family complaints and judicial records. Requests for data from the Department of Developmental Services and the Department of Health Services under the Freedom of Information Act resulted in documentation that was so highly redacted as to be rendered meaningless. The Center for Investigative Reporting filed suit, and, ultimately, the California Supreme Court compelled the state to furnish the data requested. This week’s report was the result of that data analysis. To give you a hint of the content, the title of the April 7 release is: "13 Deaths Blamed on Abuse and Neglect at California State-Run Homes."