DOJ finds South Carolina may violate ADA in how it treats mentally ill adults

The Department of Justice (DOJ) found there is reasonable cause to believe South Carolina violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to prevent the unnecessary institutionalization of adults with serious mental illness.

The DOJ said in a report released Thursday that the Palmetto State failed to provide sufficient services to prevent institutionalization and instead subsidized stays in adult care homes.

The department described the adult care facilities as “congregate, segregated settings,” in which residents often have “little contact with people without disabilities.” 

“People with disabilities should not be isolated in institutions for years on end when they can and want to live in their own homes,” said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for civil rights at the DOJ, in a press release.

The Justice Department pointed to a lack of community-based mental health services in the state, such as supported employment and permanent supportive housing, for the frequent placement of adults with serious mental illness in adult care homes.

“I hope that the violations identified by the Justice Department can be remedied so that these South Carolinians will be able to leave the shadow of institutional living and instead live in and contribute to their communities,” said Adair Ford Boroughs, U.S. attorney for the District of South Carolina, in the press release.