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OKLAHOMA CAPITOL --- Feb. 1st marked the end of a nearly 20-year-old class action lawsuit brought against public officials with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. The lawsuit led to the closing of The Hissom Memorial Center in Sand Springs, one of the state’s public facilities for persons with mental retardation.
U.S. Senior District Judge James O. Ellison, who has presided over the case from the beginning, issued his final order Tuesday, terminating the action and removing the case from the court’s active docket. The court had previously ruled that the defendants were in “substantial compliance” with the provisions of a consent decree that was approved exactly 15 years ago to the day of this final order.
Public officials with the OKDHS, the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services and the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, who were later added as defendants in the case, have been operating under court supervision since the consent decree was issued in 1990.
Assistant Oklahoma Attorney General Mark Lawton Jones, who has represented both the OKDHS and the DRS for the past 12 years, said, "This litigation has come to a successful conclusion through the hard work and perseverance of so many people who have designed, implemented and continue to administer community services for persons with disabilities."
The lawsuit was originally filed in May 1985 by a group of parents of residents at the Hissom Memorial Center who wanted community living arrangements for their children. Following a trial in 1987, the court ordered the facility closed and directed the defendants to develop community-based services and supports for the residents and many of the former residents.
The OKDHS Developmental Disabilities Services Division was successful in closing Hissom ahead of the court’s deadline and moving residents into communities. In the process, DDSD established nationally recognized community service programs that serve not only former Hissom residents, but more than 7,000 other Oklahomans with developmental disabilities.
“The ending of court supervision is a major milestone in our history of service provision,” said DDSD Director James M. Nicholson. “It amounts to getting a diploma signifying that you have achieved a very high level of proficiency.
Feb. 20, 1998, the defendants petitioned the court to terminate the consent decree and end court supervision of class members' community programs because OKDHS, DRS and the OHCA contended that the consent decree had been fully implemented and that all class members who wanted community services had been provided all necessary services.
March 19, 2004, after conducting two hearings, the court found the defendants in “substantial compliance” with the consent decree and indicated that a permanent injunction would be entered before ending active court supervision. In a separate order entered on that date, the court found that the service authorization process instituted by OKDHS has not resulted in a denial of necessary services to meet class members' individual needs.
Dec. 1, 2004, the court issued a permanent injunction stating that class members in the case would continue to receive “what was promised in the consent decree”. The court also ordered the closure of the offices of the Homeward Bound Review Panel and the Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) by Feb. 1, 2005.
The Review Panel consisted of three court-appointed experts who have monitored the defendants' compliance with the consent decree since 1990. The GAL was appointed by the court to represent those class members who lack family involvement. At the time the court issued its final order the GAL represented 178 of the remaining class members. The Review Panel and GAL offices were closed last week and the OKDHS Office of Client Advocacy has assumed the advocacy services that had previously been provided by the GAL.
In the Feb. 1 court order, the court amended the permanent injunction by omitting any reference to the consent decree or any other document, but noted that this change in the language was not a "substantive change" in the permanent injunction. The court also specified that class members may seek enforcement of the permanent injunction by demonstrating that the defendants "have failed to make available a system of community based services and supports and that the violation or violations have injured the Plaintiff Class as a whole."
Jones said, "The public officials leading these state agencies have consistently shown a willingness to work with the court for the betterment of the class members, and in turn, these efforts have improved the lives of all citizens of Oklahoma with developmental disabilities who need community services.”
“Over the past 15 years, Judge Ellison has demanded excellence, but also consistently and patiently supported the state’s efforts to improve,” Nicholson said. “We received his seal of approval Feb. 1, and we are all very proud of that.”
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