The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "mentally handicapped" ...
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D.C. Government Investigations
The Legal Times series looks into the social and criminal justice problems in Washington. Some included findings that the U.S. Attorney's Office hid details about suspect drug buys by an informant during a major sting operation. Other atricles discuss the suicides of two mentally ill patients in a D.C. jail, and imprisonment of local inmated past their release dates.
Tags: group homes; retarded; handicapped; dry cleaner; Thomas Fitsum Alemayehu; Alicia Edwards; police; Melonie Nelson;
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Broken Promises, Broken Lives
An investigation finds "widespread mistreatment of mentally retarded and mentally ill people in Missouri, including sexual assaults, beatings and neglect in thousands of incidents that led to hundreds of injuries and 21 deaths." Further, the state has not followed its own law and policies in the investigation and reporting of the mistreatment, drawing the ire of the federal government. In addition, the police and prosecutors did not always do their own investigations "of suspicious incidents." The newspaper also discovered that "the public and private system of care relies on underpaid, overworked caregivers in dangerous jobs with little training."
Tags: Mentally retarded; handicapped; sexual assault; beating; neglect; sexual offenders
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Questionable Care
WLOS-TV reports on abuse and neglect at Pleasant Cove Assisted Living Facility, the largest adult care home in Buncombe County. A tape of the patients and the conditions at the facility at night shows safety hazards and unqualified staff. Some of the findings are that the employees have never been told how to evacuate the building and help the patients in case of fire, and that some were not licensed to handle medicines.The investigation caused for the county and state authorities to inspect the facility and downgrade its license. The Pleasant Cove's owner, who refused an on-camera interview, filed a suit against the TV station, the reporter and her bosses.
Tags: FOIA; FOI requests; elderly; disabilities; mental health; mentally handicapped; fire protection; health care
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The Factory Life
Pitch Weekly investigates 'sheltered workshops' in Missouri, "which employ 8,000 people who live with what doctors call 'developmental disabilities'. Most of the workers have mild to severe mental retardation." Missouri law says employers can pay workers "less than minimum wage, but must pay them at least 52 cents an hour." Factors such as this lead many people to believe these are forced-labor sweatshops. Other critics say poor funding has lead to bad working conditions and the workshops are improperly run. Despite critics, many of the people who work in these workshops and their families are happy. Workers make friends, create routine in their lives and earn some money. Pitch Weekly looks at the issues of sheltered workshops.
Tags: sheltered workshops; mentally handicapped; workers; employers; funding; salary
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No title (id: 12766)
Florida Trend reveals the role played by race and class in determining which students wind up being classified as gifted by Florida schools. Data showed that as many as half of all middle-class white children were classified as gifted, usually on the basis of examinations by psychologists selected and paid for by the students' parents Race and class also play a huge role in determining which students wind up being classified slow learners.
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No title (id: 10856)
Dallas Observer (Texas) reveals the Texas justice system put mentally handicapped juvenile offenders in jeopardy in its efforts to crack down on juvenile crime. The investigation found the state had no place to put troubled teens with mental retardation and thus shut them away in state schools for severly retarded adults. Story resulted in local civil rights organizations lobbying the legislature to build treatment facilities for these teens, 1994.
Tags: TX Sherman Retarded Teens Jeopardized by Juvenile Justice; 12 pgs.
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No title (id: 7048)
Roanoke Times and World-News (Va.) provides chilling details of neglect and abuse in the state's homes for mentally and physically handicapped people and in homes for senior citizens, Oct. 1 - 5, 1989.
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No title (id: 4679)
Arizona Republic reveals how mentally handicapped and impoverished women are being injected with Depo-Provera, a synthetic hormone denied approval by the FDA because it causes cancer in lab animals, November 1986.
Tags: AZ
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No title (id: 4458)
Oolagah (Okla.) Lake Leader investigates a not-for-profit project which planned to build a multi-million-dollar biblical theme park and institution for the mentally handicapped, raising money through fraudulent claims, March 1985-August 1986.
Tags: Messiah Project
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No title (id: 3455)
WCAU-TV (Philadelphia) probes neglect of the retarded and the failure of institutions to help the mentally handicapped lead full lives, May 1 - 2, 1985.
Tags: Tape