HR0117LRB097 07486 KTG 47596 r

1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Since the founding of Illinois' State hospitals,
3residents of Illinois with mental illnesses and developmental
4and other disabilities have been removed from Illinois
5communities and committed to live in State institutions; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Some residents of these State institutions were
7forced to labor without compensation; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Some residents of these State institutions were
9subjected to medical experiments and procedures without their
10consent, including the routine subjection of female inmates to
11involuntary sterilizations; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Some residents of these State institutions were
13subjected to punitive shock treatments, frontal lobotomies,
14aversive treatments, and isolation; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Thousands of children grew up in these State
16institutions learning none of the comforts, joys, and cultural
17norms that are learned in family life; and
 
18    WHEREAS, Thousands of parents whose children required
19intensive care were forced to make painful decisions about
20whether to institutionalize their children or to provide all

 

 

HR0117- 2 -LRB097 07486 KTG 47596 r

1the care and education they required themselves, incurring in
2the process immeasurable financial, career, social, and
3familial burdens; and
 
4    WHEREAS, Parents of persons with developmental
5disabilities were sometimes advised to institutionalize their
6children, and to break their familial bonds by making them
7wards of the State irrespective of the family's and community's
8ability to support and nurture these children; and
 
9    WHEREAS, These fellow Illinoisans were portrayed by some as
10subhuman organisms, as deviant individuals to be feared by
11society, and as eternal children unaccountable for their
12behavior and incapable of speaking for themselves or shaping
13their own lives, which greatly diminished their fellow
14citizens' ability and willingness to accept them for their own
15unique qualities; and
 
16    WHEREAS, Institutional care for persons with developmental
17disabilities has been scientifically demonstrated to be
18detrimental to people's basic development, including social
19development, development of self-determination, and the
20development of the basic skills of daily living; and
 
21    WHEREAS, Many residents of Illinois once viewed this
22institutional treatment as acceptable and subjected tens of

 

 

HR0117- 3 -LRB097 07486 KTG 47596 r

1thousands of citizens to it, but now recognize how wrong this
2treatment was; and
 
3    WHEREAS, Illinois' State institutions are closing and,
4through this process, their history and the acknowledgment of
5our collective responsibility for it may be forgotten; and
 
6    WHEREAS, People who were relegated to State institutions
7and their families have never received a formal apology from
8the State; and
 
9    WHEREAS, The states of Virginia, Oregon, South Carolina,
10California, and North Carolina have apologized for similar
11actions towards people with disabilities in their own states;
12therefore, be it
 
13    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
14NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
15the State of Illinois apologizes publicly to all persons with
16mental illness and developmental and other disabilities who
17have been wrongfully committed to State institutions,
18acknowledging that it regrets this history of
19institutionalization of persons with those disabilities, and
20that it commits itself in their memory to move steadfastly to
21help residents of Illinois with those disabilities who in the
22future turn to the State for services to receive them in the

 

 

HR0117- 4 -LRB097 07486 KTG 47596 r

1least restrictive manner; and be it further
 
2    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
3delivered to appropriate organizations of people with
4disabilities and to the news media.