Class Action Suit Over Southbury Training School Heads To Mediation

 SOUTHBURY (AP) — State officials and advocates for the developmentally disabled are trying to settle a 6-year-old lawsuit over the Southbury Training School.

Both sides were to begin mediation in West Hartford this week before federal Magistrate F. Owen Eagan.

Judge Eagan presided over similar discussions about 15 years ago, when it was decided that Mansfield Training School, in eastern Connecticut, would close.

The federal class action lawsuit was filed in 1994, accusing the state of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by keeping the facility open, rather than integrating its 715 residents in group homes or other community settings.

The lawsuit, brought in 1994 by The Arc/Connecticut Inc., People First of Connecticut and the Western Connecticut Association for Human Rights, seeks to permanently close Southbury. The plaintiffs claim the facility is really an unconstitutional prison used to segregate the disabled.

During the 10-month-long trial last year, the state tried to show that conditions at the facility meet, and in many cases exceed, expected standards. The state also argues the facility – the last of its kind in the state – should stay open because it is the best option for some families.

US District Court Judge Ellen Bree Burns suggested mediation as a way to lighten her caseload and get the two sides together out of court one last time. The talks are not binding and Judge Burns will resume her deliberations if an agreement is not reached.

In the year since the lawsuit over the rights of mentally retarded people at Southbury Training School went to trial, the state has appointed a new director at the institution and found money to move 21 residents out.

But the advocacy groups say they want to ensure the state provides more community based options for Southbury clients who want to leave.