Department of Justice finds State of Iowa violated rights of citizens at resource centers.

DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) - After an extensive investigation in the Glennwood and Woodward Resource Centers, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) found that there is reasonable cause to believe that the State of Iowa violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The report found that the State of Iowa failed to provide residents of the resource centers as well as their guardians with sufficient information about community options and failed to provide services to intellectually/developmentally disabled people in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.

The DOJ notified Iowa in 2020 that conditions at Glenwood violated the federal rights of the people living there and the rights protected by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. They found that the State subjected its residents to unreasonable harm and risk by exposing them to uncontrolled and unsupervised physical and behavioral experimentation, inadequate physical and behavioral health care, and inadequate protections from harm, including deficient safety and oversight mechanisms.

The reported concluded that legal action will be taken from the Department of Justice if the State of Iowa is unable to reform its institutional settings to abide by the rules of the ADA.

You can read and download a full look at the DOJ’s findings here.