Closing institutions in New York State

Abstract

In 1987, New York State announced that it would close six of its 20 large institutions for the care of people with developmental disabilities (largely mental retardation) by 1991. Coming on the heels of the 1984 decision to close Willowbrook Developmental Centre as the culmination of the long legal battle over that facility, this was a significant shift in the state’s policy for the care of people with developmental disabilities. This would be the largest and most rapid closure of large institutions for the care of people with developmental disabilities in the United States. Toward the end of the first phase of closures in 1990, New York announced its intention to close all of its large institutions. By 1994, nine centres had closed, and there were less than 5000 people residing in the remaining facilities. New York was rapidly becoming the largest state to operate a system of services for people with developmental disabilities without large institutions. This was particularly important because New York’s Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD) had operated the largest system of institutions since the nineteenth century.