California facilities put disabled at risk, audit finds

SACRAMENTO — Californians with developmental disabilities who are cared for at state facilities are being put at risk by outdated policies and inadequate investigations of abuse, the state auditor’s office said Tuesday.

Allegations that residents have been raped, shot with stun guns and otherwise abused have not been acted on satisfactorily, auditors found. The California Department of Developmental Services cares for 1,480 severely disabled people in five facilities throughout the state.

Employees of the agency do not always give timely notice of abuse allegations to its Office of Protective Services, which does not routinely follow its own investigative procedures on alleged assaults on residents, the audit found.

Investigators “often failed to collect written declarations from suspects and witnesses, take photographs of crime scenes or alleged victims, and attempt to interview alleged victims, particularly residents said to be nonverbal,” Chief Deputy State Auditor Doug Cordiner wrote to Gov. Jerry Brown.

Greg deGiere is public policy director of the Arc and United Cerebral Palsy California Collaboration, which includes people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. He called the audit a “devastating indictment of the state’s mismanagement of the developmental center residents’ safety.”

Some residents with cerebral palsy and severe autism cannot defend themselves against abusers, DeGiere told reporters, and the lack of thorough investigations means some criminals are escaping punishment.

The department received 4,345 allegations of abuse against patients in the last five years. Of those, 183 were substantiated and 82 were sent to district attorneys for prosecution.

Abusers have included staff members, visitors and other patients, according to state Sen. James Beall Jr. (D-San Jose), who requested the audit.

“It’s frightening for a parent to not believe they have the strongest security possible to protect their family member,” Beall said.

He questioned the spending of $400,000 a year per patient to keep so many developmentally disabled people in large facilities rather than use the money to place them in care facilities in their own communities or in their families’ care.

The state is planning to shut down the Lanterman Developmental Center in Pomona, but DeGiere has long called for closure of all the large facilities. He said Brown is responsible for not exercising proper oversight of the department.

A Brown spokesman declined to comment, referring calls to the Department of Developmental Services. Officials there released a letter in which they said that corrective action is being taken but that more needs to be done.

Agency officials say that they have created an automated tracking system for abuse allegations and are taking steps to improve training.

“The department recognizes that despite significant progress to date, more can be done to improve the safety of individuals residing at the facilities,” the department’s director, Terri Delgadillo, wrote to the auditors.

The report also said that frequent turnover in the Office of Protective Services management has contributed to a lack of action to address problems, including a lack of specialized training for investigators, first identified in 2002. There is a 43% vacancy rate in the Office of Protective Services, auditors said.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com