“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 1

Visitors

10008

HR 911 - a bill in front of the US Congress

The widespread allegations of abuse in residential treatment for youth has lead to federal investigations by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, and Congressional hearings in October 2007 and April 2008 and resulted in the proposal of H.R. 5876 - Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs, later H.R. 911.  Representative George Miller is reintroducing this bill again now in 2011.  Please support the passage of this important legislation which will help protect children from abuse and neglect.  Having Federal involvement will not only help to bring awareness, but also help to fill oversight gaps in some of the states with the least licensing requirements for these facilities. 

The full text of the original bill can be viewed here and previous votes from 2009 are available here.

Please reach out to your representative

 

The GOA  testimony reports on residential treatment abuse shows four striking patterns:

 

* Untrained program staff;

* Misleading marketing of programs to parents;

* The occurrence of abuse before the fatalities occurred;

* Negligent operating practices.

 

There are major gaps in licensing and oversight of residential treatment facilities for youth, so that many have been able to operate virtually unregulated. To help fix this major failure, H.R. 911 proposes that these programs fall under federal regulations. 

Download GAO Report October 2007.

Download GAO Report May 2008.

“When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensible of duties.”

  Marquis De Lafayette

“A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.”

 A. Philip Randolph

Guide to This Website

General Information 

  

Human Rights  

 

Mental Health  

  •  

Whistleblower Issues

 

Veterans Issues  

 

  

Law Enforcement Issues 

  

 

 

Residential Abuse of Children  

 

Sexual Assault Issues

 

Substance Abuse Treatment 

 

"Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself."  Confucius

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt- Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic", delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910