Advancing Deinstitutionalization

Abstract

For over a quarter century, the "deinstitutionalization movement"' achieved the transfer of countless retarded persons from large, congregate-care facilities to family-style residences in the community. This article suggests an approach to deinstitutionalization more likely than past theories to be judicially persuasive because it is more consistent with the Court's view of its general role in enforcing the substantive due process and equal protection safeguards of the fourteenth amendment. This approach, similar to judicial review of agency action," will seek simply to insure that professional judgment was in fact exercised without requiring the reviewing court to second-guess the propriety of any treatment prescribed and explains why current deinstitutionalization theories are in doubt.

Keywords: deinstitutionalization, retarded persons, congregate care facilities, due process