83rd Legislative Session (2003-2004)
Posted on Mar 10, 2003
A resolution respectfully requesting the governor to apologize on behalf of citizens of the
state to all persons with mental illness and developmental and other disabilities who have been wrongfully committed to state institutions.
WHEREAS, since the founding of the state hospital institutions, now called regional treatment centers, in 1879, tens of thousands of Minnesotans with mental illnesses and developmental and other disabilities (primarily mental retardation) have been removed from Minnesota communities and committed to live in state institutions, where many of these Minnesotans have died and been buried in unmarked graves or graves that bore only a number; 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 women 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 ways that are learned in family life; and
WHEREAS, thousands of parents whose children required intensive care were forced to make painful decisions about institutionalizing their children or to provide all 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 advised by Minnesota's medical professionals 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 Minnesotans were portrayed by Minnesota public officials 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, Minnesotans once viewed this institutional treatment as acceptable and subjected tens of thousands of citizens to it; and
WHEREAS, Minnesota's 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;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that it respectfully requests the Governor of the State of Minnesota, on behalf of the citizens of the state and their elected representatives, to publicly apologize 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 institutional-ization of persons with those disabilities, and that it commits itself in their memory to move steadfastly to ensure that all Minnesotans with those disabilities who in the future turn to the state for assistance will receive the appropriate assistance they need.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature urges the Governor to take note of the similar apologies made by governors in the states of Virginia, Oregon, and North Carolina as he considers this request.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is directed to prepare an enrolled copy of this resolution, and transmit it to the Governor of the state of Minnesota.
