Atlanta Office for Civil Rights Ignores Tennessee's "System Complaints"

Melvin Douglas and Willie Robinson both left the state of Tennessee to avoid illegal and unnecessary institutionalization. Both of these gentleman complained that the state was denying them their civil rights by not providing services in the lest restrictive environment as required by the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Olmstead.

While in Washington, ADAPT advocates were able to meet with the Regional Managers of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. The complaints that Melvin, Willie and other people all over the nation that are illegally and inappropriately institutionalized make end up in these managers office.

I got a chance to ask Roosevelt Freeman, the Regional Manager for the Tennessee area what happened to the complaints of Willie and Melvin. Essentially, Mr. Freeman said they were thrown away because his office classified them as “systems complaints” rather than some other civil rights violation that his office prefers to deal with.

I asked him directly what a “good complaint” would be like yet he only responded in vague and general terms. Apparently, from what Mr. Freeman suggests, a complaint should not be a “systems complaint,” yet; it should specifically outline where the system fails an individual.

Mr. Freeman suggested the reason that they did not want to deal with “systems complaints” was because of the shared responsibility U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has with the Department of Justice in enforcing these rights. Ironically, the success that Mr. Freeman was proud to point to were in Georgia, where the Olmstead “systems complaint” was originally filed.

The further impression I got from Mr. Freeman on how his office was going to enforce Olmstead in Tennessee was that his region was not entangling themselves where there are any existing lawsuits, no matter how compelling the complaints may be.

I asked Mr. Freeman to read the accounts of Melvin and Willie on the MCIL website and to reconsider them as complaints against the state of Tennessee, and to examine them as individual complaints of expatriates that have been wronged by the system and would like to return to Tennessee.

You can write Roosevelt Freeman at U. S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, Atlanta Federal Center, 61 Forsyth Street, S.W. Suite 3B70 Atlanta, GA 30303-8909 (404) 562-7859 v (404) 562-7884 tty rfreeman@os.dhhs.gov 



-Tim Wheat