Here's Goodhair's record in state facilities for the Disabled

[UTUSN]

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http://www.texastribune.org/texas-state-agencies/aging-and-disability-services/perry-downplayed-abuse-institutions-disabled/

Perry Downplayed Allegations at Centers for Disabled

by Emily Ramshaw
10/24/2011
Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential campaign hinges on one overarching message: that states perform best when left to their own devices and federal regulators should butt out. Yet during his decade-long tenure in the governor’s office, Perry and his staff repeatedly downplayed the severity of abuse and neglect allegations at Texas’ state-run institutions for the disabled — until conditions became so dire that the U.S. attorney general was forced to intervene. ....

After the U.S. Department of Justice released a report critical of conditions at the Lubbock State School in 2006 — saying there had been more than 17 deaths there in 18 months — the governor’s office suggested the problems had already been solved. ....

Only when faced with legal action and monetary damages did Perry’s tone shift: In February 2009 he declared protecting the residents of Texas’ institutions for the disabled a legislative emergency. In May 2009, the state reached an agreement with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to spend $112 million over five years to improve care and enhance staffing at the institutions. ....



http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/abuse-neglect-texas-disabled-institutions/

Despite Reforms, Abuse Continues at Texas Institutions for Disabled

by Emily Ramshaw and Becca Aaronson
October 23, 2011

.... ...But two-and-a-half years after Texas officials signed an agreement with the U.S. Attorney General’s office aimed at improving conditions in the state’s 13 institutions — following a U.S. Justice Department investigation that found avoidable deaths, civil rights violations and systemic abuse — a Texas Tribune review of facility monitoring reports and employee disciplinary records shows mistreatment is still relatively commonplace. And though there’s been some evidence of improvement, the state’s federally designated disability watchdog group Disability Rights says that halfway into the five-year settlement agreement, not even a quarter of its requirements have been met.

Federal investigators have a lengthy history with Texas’ state-supported living centers, formerly known as state schools. The Justice Department sent a team into a Lubbock facility in 2005, releasing a highly critical report in 2006 that cited more than 17 deaths at the institution in the previous 18 months. ....

In May 2009, four years after the initial investigation in Lubbock, state leaders signed a five-year, $112 million settlement agreement with the U.S. Attorney General’s office, pledging to improve standards of care, increase oversight and monitoring, and enhance staffing. ....

“You have good days and bad days anywhere,” she said. “No matter what you do, from fingerprints to employment history, bad things sometimes happen.”

But watchdogs say that’s not an acceptable explanation. Whether the Justice Department will acknowledge it, they say, Texas is not living up to its end of the bargain — as evidenced by the results of frequent status reports released on each facility by independent monitors. ....

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[jwirr]

1. Institutions are closed societies and they act to protect themselves

and their jobs not the clients. The only true protection for the clients is smaller localized facilities (foster homes, group homes) that are supervised/inspected by the state and open to community visitors at all times and who are part of the communities they live in.

That having been said - the state also needs leaders who care about the clients and enforce the laws. I doubt perry fits that description.