INCLUSION DAILY EXPRESS -- Sonoma Developmental Center Investigation

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SONOMA DEVELOPMENTAL CENTER

"These things are just a small part of what's wrong at SDC."
-- An unnamed source within Sonoma Developmental Center

June 19, 2000 through August 28, 2000: SDC -- INVESTIGATION OR COVER-UP?
February 23, 2001: PAPER RECEIVES AWARD ON INVESTIGATIVE SERIES

SDC--INVESTIGATION OR COVER-UP?
June 19, 2000 through August 28, 2000

SONOMA, CALIFORNIA--Sonoma Developmental Center, which houses over 800 people who have developmental disabilities, has been the focus of investigations by federal and state officials because of poor quality of care and for not protecting residents from assaults by staff and other residents.

Over a two month period, Sonoma's local newspaper looked at how investigations into those incidents were botched or covered up. Research into several recent incidents involving physical and sexual assaults and a drug overdose led some inside and outside the institution to believe that the state either does not want to know what happened or does not know how to properly investigate such incidents.

The Sonoma Index-Tribune looked at SDC's own investigative practices including the fact that they hired inadequately trained, under-qualified, unsupervised investigators; that site administrators were called into incident scenes before investigators arrived; and the conflict of interest that exists because investigators are employed by the very facility they investigate.

The paper also looked at how the center and state officials appeared to ignor recommendations that could have improved the safety and lives of SDC residents, how lawmakers failed to follow up on recommendations, and how fear of retaliation from coworkers and administrators keeps some SDC workers from reporting abuses.

June 19: PART I
June 26: PART II
July 11:PART III
August 1: PART IV
August 28: PART V

December 26:"TROUBLES DOG SDC IN 2000"

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PAPER RECEIVES AWARD ON INVESTIGATIVE SERIES
February 23, 2001

SONOMA, CALIFORNIA--The Sonoma Index-Tribune announced today that it has earned an award for last year's investigative series on abuses and deaths at Sonoma Developmental Center and questionable practices by the institution's administration.

The Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will be presenting its James Madison Freedom of Information award to the Index-Tribune's editor Bill Lynch and former writer Neal Ross.

The series exposed several incidents of abuse and questionable deaths, and examined how the administration appeared to thwart investigations by campus police and state inspectors.

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