Free Republic

DURING 15 years of confinement in psychiatric institutions in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, Dimitri Gerasimenko was starved and repeatedly beaten. The indignities did not end with his death five years ago at the age of 30.Staff at the ramshackle asylum 50 miles from Bishkek, the capital, have never told his mother Raisa, 65, how he died. All her attempts to retrieve his remains have been met with prevarication, compounding her grief. “First I was asked for money if I wanted the body back,” she said. “Then I was told Dimitri had been sent to a medical academy. When...

Nearly 40 years after New York emptied its scandal-ridden warehouses for the developmentally disabled, the far-flung network of small group homes that replaced them operates with scant oversight and few consequences for employees who abuse the vulnerable population. A New York Times investigation over the past year has found widespread problems in the more than 2,000 state-run homes. In hundreds of cases reviewed by The Times, employees who sexually abused, beat or taunted residents were rarely fired, even after repeated offenses, and in many cases, were simply transferred to other group homes run by the state. And, despite a state...

Sunday, June 22,2002 -- Seven days, the state budget, the Sixties, Ken Kesey and the insane. People who do not live in Oregon don't know what they're missing. I almost missed it myself. Didn't catch this seminal program on its Friday, Oregon Public Broadcasting, appearance. Was trying to start my Fiat on Sunday afternoon when the show reran. But, knowing I'd get a column out of this one, the Spyder wisely refused to start...(snip) The important item on this program was their discussion about the insane. This was a classic. It was stimulated by the Supreme Court's recent decision to...