Bill Text: IL HR0117 | 2011-2012 | 97th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Apologizes to all persons with mental illness and developmental and other disabilities who have been wrongfully committed to State institutions and provides that the State commits itself to help residents of Illinois with those disabilities receive State services in the least restrictive manner.

Sponsorship: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-1)

Status: (Passed) 2011-04-12 - Resolution Adopted [HR0117 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2011-HR0117-Introduced.html

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

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

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

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