FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          CR
FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 1997                              (202) 616-2765
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888
                                 
                WISCONSIN TO IMPROVE CONDITIONS
         AT TWO STATE INSTITUTIONS UNDER AGREEMENT WITH
                      THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The state of Wisconsin today reached an
agreement with the Justice Department which will protect the
rights of residents of two state facilities for people with
developmental disabilities.

     The agreement, which was filed in U.S. District Court in
Madison, requires the state to maintain adequate care for the
approximately 750 residents of the Southern Wisconsin Center for
the Developmentally Disabled ("SWC") in Union Grove, and the
Central Wisconsin Center for the Developmentally Disabled ("CWC")
in Madison.  

     "Through the cooperative efforts of federal and Wisconsin
officials, we have been able to reach an agreement that will
ensure better conditions for those who reside in Wisconsin's
public institutions," said Isabelle Katz Pinzler, Acting
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

     The Justice Department began investigating the two
facilities in 1992, and uncovered deficiencies in medical and
psychiatric care, staffing, and treatment.  Under the Civil
Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980 (CRIPA), the
Department has authority to ensure that conditions at state and
local institutions meet constitutional standards.  

     Today's agreement requires the state to provide adequate
care and services in the institutions, to assess the needs of
each institutionalized person, and help ensure adequate community
services to individuals who are determined by professionals to be
better served in the community. 

     The agreement also provides for a panel of three experts,
including a physician, psychiatrist and psychologist, to evaluate
the state's compliance with the decree.
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