The high court slows a trend
Pennhurst State School and Hospital, a sprawling institution in Spring City, Pa., is home to 1,200 mentally retarded people. The facility has a history of being understaffed, dirty and violent. Three years ago, in response to a class-action suit, a federal district judge ordered that Pennhurst eventually be closed, and appointed an overseer to place residents in facilities where they would have more freedom. An appeals court backed the judge but allowed Pennhurst to remain open—in effect, under the court's supervision—to serve the most troubled patients.
Taken together, the decisions added momentum to the national "deinstitutionalization" movement,...
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