Justice for Victims of Sterilization Act; established, creates Compensation Fund. (HB74)

In a few years, no doubt the General Assembly will be debating a "Justice for Victims of Public Guardianship" bill, for those who were denied due process, stripped of their rights, and stuck away from society for months or years, in violation of the longstanding laws regarding guardianship and conservatorship.

http://jennyhatchproject.info/jennys_words

At least this victim was in a decent facility. What about those who were dumped in facilities like the hellholes operated by the notorious Scott Schuett, in one case, in violation of a court order? (Google Scott Schuett for details on the appalling conditions these victims endured.) This is publicly sponsored, publicly funded abuse and neglect of the elderly and disabled.

The ACLU of Virginia supports this bill because it compensates victims of the shameful practice of forced sterilization. Virginia’s legal sterilization program was enacted into law in 1924 – the same year the legislature adopted the Racial Integrity Act that prohibited interracial marriages. It is estimated that between 7,200 and 8,300 people were sterilized in Virginia from 1927-1979 because they were deemed by society at the time to be unworthy or unfit to procreate. In most cases, the individuals were “patients” at state mental institutions who were sent there because of alleged mental illness, physical deformity, “feeble-mindedness,” or simply because they were homeless. Twenty-two percent of the individuals sterilized were African Americans (about equal to the population in the state at the time) and two-thirds were women. Many of those sterilized were not even told they were being sterilized, but instead given some other explanation for their operation. We wholeheartedly support the effort to compensate victims of the state’s forced sterilization law.

The ACLU of Virginia strongly supports this bill because it compensates victims of the shameful practice of forced sterilization. Virginia’s legal sterilization program was enacted into law in 1924 – the same year the legislature adopted the Racial Integrity Act that prohibited interracial marriages. It is estimated that between 7,200 and 8,300 people were sterilized in Virginia from 1927-1979 because they were deemed by society at the time to be unworthy or unfit to procreate. In most cases, the individuals were “patients” at state mental institutions who were sent there because of alleged mental illness, physical deformity, “feeble-mindedness,” or simply because they were homeless. Many of those sterilized were not even told they were being sterilized, but instead given some other explanation for their operation. We wholeheartedly support the effort to compensate victims of the state’s forced sterilization law.

spotter, you are like the RINO Republicans in Virginia's legislature. You fail to understand government. You fail to understand that the forced taking of citizen's right to give life was the most egregious government taking in Virginia's history. It was a legislative act designed to kill off its citizens. Your support for a absolute sovereign is contrary to the law of restitution and the Constitution's redress. Redress for egregious government actions is about government accountability. IT is a limited government issue that holds governments accountable. spotter, you sir are the poster-child of Hobbs' Leviathan. Such a political philosophy is the epitome of a tyrannical government and ultimate nanny state. Restitution is about government accountability to ensure similar actions do not happen again. "The privilege of giving or withholding our money is an important barrier against the undue exertion prerogative which if left altogether without control may be exercised to our great oppression; and all history shows how efficacious its intercession for redress of grievances and establishment of rights, and how improvident would be the surrender of so powerful a mediator." Thomas Jefferson: Reply to Lord North, 1775.

Exactly. The point is, the very same thing is happening TODAY under the guise of public guardianship programs like Jewish Family Service of Tidewater and Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia.

These public guardianship programs engage in breathtaking procedural abuses in the court actions in which they are appointed guardian and conservator, such as hand-picking the same guardian ad litem "for" the incapacitated person, over and over, in literally hundreds of cases, because that sycophantic GAL ALWAYS agrees with them. (The Code of Virginia says the COURT, not the petitioner or the public guardianship program, shall select the GAL -- to do otherwise is a blatant conflict of interest.)

These scofflaw petitioners and public guardianship programs fail to notify KNOWN family members of the court hearing. They do not bring any witnesses to court; usually there are only two people present: the petitioner's attorney and the hand-picked GAL, who are good friends. They do not allow the incapacitated person to attend the court hearing, even when they know that the person wants to be present to contest the petition. When an attorney tries to provide honest representation to the incapacitated person, they invent numerous groundless procedural arguments to body slam that attorney out of the way, even going so far as to defame that attorney repeatedly in court pleadings and elsewhere, and disobey court orders.

Having obtained a rubber stamped court order of extremely questionable validity, they then dump the incapacitated person in a dangerous, disgusting hellhole like one of the six places with 400 victims run by Scott Schuett in the Hampton Roads area. (Google Scott Schuett for the appalling details.)

In one case, Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia dumped an elderly lady in a now-closed Scott Schuett facility in direct violation of a court order for seven agonizing months. The hand-picked GAL "for" this lady not only laughed off in open court any attempts to rectify the situation, she actually blew off a scheduled court hearing, failing to appear. Only when CCEVA and this hand-picked GAL were REMOVED from the case was this elderly victim able to move to a decent, clean facility.

What are the Virginia Public Guardian and Conservator Advisory Board and the Virginia Department for the Aging and Rehabilitative Services doing about these systematic violations of the rights of incapacitated people? Nothing.

Actually, less than nothing, because they are using every tool in their power, legal or illegal, to cover up these problems.

Shameful. And dangerous, since each and every one of these public officials, attorneys, and guardianship programs are opening themselves and the Commonwealth up to a lawsuit.