Full Text of HR0117 97th General Assembly
HR0117 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Since the founding of Illinois' State hospitals, | 3 | | residents of Illinois with mental illnesses and developmental
| 4 | | and other disabilities have been removed from Illinois | 5 | | communities and committed to live
in State institutions; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, Some residents of these State institutions were | 7 | | forced to labor without
compensation; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, Some residents of these State institutions were | 9 | | subjected to medical
experiments and procedures without their | 10 | | consent, including the routine subjection of female
inmates to | 11 | | involuntary sterilizations; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, Some residents of these State institutions were | 13 | | subjected to punitive shock
treatments, frontal lobotomies, | 14 | | aversive treatments, and isolation; and
| 15 | | WHEREAS, Thousands of children grew up in these State | 16 | | institutions learning none of the
comforts, joys, and cultural | 17 | | norms that are learned in family life; and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, Thousands of parents whose children required | 19 | | intensive care were forced to
make painful decisions about | 20 | | whether to institutionalize their children or to provide all |
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| 1 | | the care
and education they required themselves, incurring in | 2 | | the process immeasurable financial, career,
social, and | 3 | | familial burdens; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, Parents of persons with developmental | 5 | | disabilities were sometimes advised to
institutionalize their | 6 | | children, and to break their familial bonds by making them | 7 | | wards of the State
irrespective of the family's and community's | 8 | | ability to support and nurture these children; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, These fellow Illinoisans were portrayed by some as | 10 | | subhuman organisms, as
deviant individuals to be feared by | 11 | | society, and as eternal children unaccountable for their | 12 | | behavior
and incapable of speaking for themselves or shaping | 13 | | their own lives, which greatly diminished
their fellow | 14 | | citizens' ability and willingness to accept them for their own | 15 | | unique qualities; and
| 16 | | WHEREAS, Institutional care for persons with developmental | 17 | | disabilities has been
scientifically demonstrated to be | 18 | | detrimental to people's basic development, including social
| 19 | | development, development of self-determination, and the | 20 | | development of the basic skills of
daily living; and
| 21 | | WHEREAS, Many residents of Illinois once viewed this | 22 | | institutional treatment as acceptable and
subjected tens of |
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| 1 | | thousands of citizens to it, but now recognize how wrong this | 2 | | treatment was;
and
| 3 | | WHEREAS, Illinois' State institutions are closing and, | 4 | | through this process, their
history and the acknowledgment of | 5 | | our collective responsibility for it may be forgotten; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, People who were relegated to State institutions | 7 | | and their families have never
received a formal apology from | 8 | | the State; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, The states of Virginia, Oregon, South Carolina, | 10 | | California, and North Carolina
have apologized for similar | 11 | | actions towards people with disabilities in their own states; | 12 | | therefore, be it
| 13 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 14 | | NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 15 | | the State of Illinois apologizes publicly to all persons with | 16 | | mental illness and developmental and
other disabilities who | 17 | | have been wrongfully committed to State institutions, | 18 | | acknowledging that it
regrets this history of | 19 | | institutionalization of persons with those disabilities, and | 20 | | that it commits
itself in their memory to move steadfastly to | 21 | | help residents of Illinois with those disabilities who in the
| 22 | | future turn to the State for services to receive them in the |
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| 1 | | least restrictive manner; and be it further
| 2 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 3 | | delivered to appropriate
organizations of people with | 4 | | disabilities and to the news media.
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